The Effect of Smokeless Tobacco (SLT) Excise Taxes on SLT Use Among Youth

Background: Smokeless Tobacco (SLT) use prevalence among youth in the United States (US) is comparable to youth prevalence of cigarette smoking. However, it is in general understudied compared to cigarettes and draws less attention nowadays compared to e-cigarettes (ECs).

Aim: We estimate the own- and cross-tax elasticities of SLT use among US youth and explicitly test how SLT use changes in response to taxes on SLT, cigarettes, ECs, and beer.

Methods: We standardized SLT taxes for chewing tobacco, moist snuff, dry snuff, and snus, and computed average SLT taxes. We implemented a logit regression model within the state- and year-fixed effects framework.

Results: A 10 % increase in SLT excise taxes reduced youth SLT use by 4 % (p < 0.01). This result is primarily driven by males, Whites, multiple non-Hispanic races, other races, and individuals living in non-Appalachian states. In addition, a 10 % increase in cigarette taxes increases youth SLT use by 8 % (p < 0.05), suggesting substitutional effects. A 10 % increase in EC and beer taxes reduce SLT use by 0.5 % and 2.4 % (p < 0.01), respectively, suggesting complementary effects.

Conclusion: Raising excise taxes on SLT products can effectively curtail their usage among the youth population. Furthermore, increasing EC and beer taxes reduces youth SLT use. However, an increase in cigarette taxes leads to an unintended consequence of promoting SLT use among youth. In addition, increasing SLT taxes does not appear to significantly impact the disparities in youth SLT use by whether living in Appalachian states. Future research is needed to assess whether SLT taxes reduce disparities in use by rural/urban divisions.