Smoking Initiation Among Youth in Bosnia and Herzegovina

This Policy Brief was written by University of Banja Luka (UBL) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The policy brief examines the effect of price and non-price factors on youth smoking initiation in the country. The findings show that raising cigarette prices through excise tax increases would reduce the likelihood of youth smoking initiation both directly and indirectly due to peer and parental influence. Specifically, a 10% price increase would reduce youth initiation by 4.91%. Exposure to anti-tobacco media campaigns is also a significant deterrent in youth smoking. On the other hand, the researchers find that exposure to parental smoking and smoking on school premises increases the likelihood of youth smoking onset. Furthermore, youth are 2.5x more likely to start smoking if their close friends smoke. The policy brief concludes with recommendations for policy makers to raise tobacco excise taxes and strengthen other tobacco control strategies to discourage youth from beginning to smoke. 

A corresponding Working Paper can be found here.