Multiple dimensions of cigarette smoking and responsiveness to cigarette price changes in Taiwan

This study investigates how smokers respond to both short- and long-run changes in the price of cigarettes in multiple dimensions of smoking behavior. Using a sample of males from a national longitudinal survey in Taiwan, we estimated the demand for cigarettes under both short- and long-run specifications using a quality-purged price index. We found a modest short-run price elasticity of demand for cigarettes and a long-run elasticity of demand that did not significantly exceed the short-run elasticity. We also found that smokers responded to higher cigarette prices by smoking each cigarette more fully without changing their choices of tar and nicotine content to compensate for reduced cigarette consumption. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.