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Quarterly Update (March 2019)

Join us for a webinar on the new Tobacconomics Toolkit:
"Using Household Expenditure Surveys for Research in the Economics of Tobacco Control"
Wednesday, March 20th @ 8:00 a.m. CST

Register here

 
Speakers: Violeta Vulovic, PhD and Rijo John, PhD 
For more information, questions, or help with registration, email info@tobacconomics.org
Featured Blog Series:
The Tobacconomics Approach to Think Tank Capacity Building 
During the month of March, we will be sharing a series of blogs to explain the Tobacconomics project, “Accelerating Progress on Tobacco Taxes in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries,” which is funded through the Bloomberg Initiative To Reduce Tobacco Use. This series will explain the “who, what, when, where, why and how” of our team’s approach to capacity building on the economics of tobacco control. 
 
Click here to read our first blog in the series!
Featured Research
Economic Cases for NCD Prevention and Control:
A Global Perspective

 
Image Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

A new special collection of PLOS ONE, “Economic Cases for NCD Prevention and Control: A Global Perspective,” expands the evidence base on the economic burden of NCDs and the impact of NCD prevention and control programs globally. The collection features nine articles and  includes four papers by Tobacconomics researchers, Frank Chaloupka, Evan Blecher, Ce Shang, and Guillermo Paraje. These articles cover topics, such as cigarette affordability and consumption, the impact of alcohol price and consumption, alcohol price and affordability, and sugar-sweetened beverage taxation!

To learn more about the collection, click here to read a recent blog post explaining the topics in further detail.
Improving Tobacco Taxation Policies
in Southeastern Europe

 
 
The Southeastern European (SEE) countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia have ratified the WHO FCTC recognizing taxation as an effective tool for reducing tobacco use. This research was produced by Tobacconomics think tank partners in the region, led by the research team at the Institute of Economic Sciences. The products present research on seven SEE countries, and show there is a significant potential for accelerating the increase of excise duties to reduce the negative effects of tobacco consumption on public health and the economy. Read the briefs here. 
Economics of Tobacco Taxation and Impacts of
Tobacco Use in Pakistan 


In Pakistan, research results from the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) and Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC) recommend a simplified tax structure that has only two tiers of taxation, instead of the three tiers currently used in the country. Along with restoring tax levels to 2016 rates, this simplification would result in an estimated 3 million fewer smokers and 1.1 million fewer premature deaths and generate an estimated Rs 91.2 billion in new government revenues. Their research can be found here.
Tobacconomics Team Member Spotlight
Germán Rodriguez-Iglesias, MSc, PhD(c)
Germán leads our work Latin America. Before joining Tobacconomics, Germán worked as a researcher for the InterAmerican Heart Foundation– Argentina, where his focus was on research to advanced effective tobacco control policies. Germán received his bachelor’s degree in economics from the National University of Mar del Plata, Argentina, and an MSc in economics from the University of the Basque Country. He is currently a PhD candidate enrolled in the doctoral program in economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
About Us 

Based in the Health Policy Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), the Tobacconomics team conducts economic research to shape global tobacco control policies, and we also partner with economic policy think tanks in low- and middle-income countries to build the local evidence base for more effective tobacco tax systems. UIC is a partner of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use.