Research

Tobacco Tax Increases Can Reduce Tobacco Use

This Policy Brief was written by Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y Desarrollo (CIAD) in Mexico. The Policy Brief examines tobacco taxes in Mexico and simulates two reforms that increase the specific component tax on cigarettes. The first reform, adopted in January of 2020, updated the specific tax on cigarettes for inflation (to 0.49 pesos per stick) and the second reform increases the specific component so that the total tax burden on cigarettes reaches the World Health Organization’s recommended 75 percent of the final retail price (to $1.35 pesos per stick). The Policy Brief presents the public health, revenue, and distributional impacts of these two reforms and recommends the more ambitious reform as well as earmarking the additional revenues from the tax increase to food security programs in Mexico.

A corresponding Policy Brief can be found here.

A corresponding Report can be found here.

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