Working Paper: NBER ID: w26126
Authors: Rahi Abouk; Scott Adams; Bo Feng; Johanna Catherine Maclean; Michael F. Pesko
Abstract: E-cigarette taxes are an active area of legislation and have important regulatory implications by proxying e-cigarette accessibility. We examine the effect of e-cigarette taxes on pre-pregnancy and prenatal smoking using the near-universe of births to mothers conceiving between 2013 and 2019 in the United States. Using fixed effect regressions, we show that e-cigarette taxes increase pre-pregnancy and prenatal smoking. We also find evidence that e-cigarette taxes reduce pre-pregnancy and 3rd trimester e-cigarette use. Finally, we show that e-cigarette taxes increase news coverage of e-cigarettes and raise perceptions of risk of e-cigarettes.
Keywords: ecigarette taxes; prepregnancy smoking; prenatal smoking; public health
JEL Codes: I12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| ecigarette taxes (H26) | prepregnancy smoking (I12) |
| ecigarette taxes (H26) | prenatal smoking (I12) |
| ecigarette taxes (H26) | number of smoking periods during pregnancy (I12) |
| ecigarette taxes (H26) | prepregnancy ecigarette use (I12) |
| ecigarette taxes (H26) | third-trimester ecigarette use (J13) |