Innovative Policy: Effects of Tobacco Abuse Liability-dependent Taxes in the ETM
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Summary
In a within-subject design, cigarette smokers, stratified by age, will purchase tobacco products under three tax rate conditions based on abuse liability, that is taxes based on: (1) product category score (i.e. score ranging from 0-1 based on abuse liability effect sizes); (2) product category rank (i.e. position of a product relative to all others; e.g. 1st, 5th); and (3) product tiers (i.e. low-, medium-, high abuse liability), as well as a control. In the ETM, the effects of these interventions will be examined on cigarette demand and other products substitution. The investigators will use a repeated-measures (within subject) analysis of variance (ANOVA) to test if there are differences between conditions (i.e., tax proposals) independently for each product. The models will include study design parameters for order effects to account for counterbalancing the tax conditions in the ETM. Each tax condition will be compared to the control. All distributional assumptions will be checked prior to analyses and the appropriate transformations will be employed, if needed. For each significant result from the omnibus test, the investigators will perform planned contrasts to test the proposed hypotheses previously described. Note that the omnibus test can result in a significant finding while the contrasts of interest may be non-significant. In this case, the investigators will only report the results from the planned contrasts. Additional analyses might be conducted.
Description
In this study, the investigators will experimentally examine the impact of abuse-liability taxes on tobacco product purchases and ultimately tobacco dependence. The investigators hypothesize that (1) the three abuse-liability tax proposals (product category score; product category rank; product tiers) will decrease purchasing of products with the highest abuse liability; and (2) increase purchasing of products with lower abuse liability (substitution) compared to control. Moreover, (3) the tax rate based on product category score will lead to the greatest substitution, because it is most refl…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 21+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion criteria: * Provide informed consent * Be at least 21 years of age or older * Provide a breath sample for measuring carbon monoxide (CO ≥ 8 ppm) * Smoke at least 10 cigarettes daily * Use other tobacco products less than weekly Exclusion criteria: * Have uncontrolled physical or mental health conditions * Use of smoking cessation medications (e.g., nicotine replacement, bupropion, varenicline) in the past 30 days * Report concrete, immediate plans to alter/quit using their usual tobacco products in the next 30 days * If they are pregnant or lactating * Have plans to move out of th…
Interventions
- BehavioralControl
In the control condition, participants will purchase tobacco/nicotine products in the ETM. Cigarettes will increase in price across trials.
- BehavioralProduct Category Score
In the product category score condition, participants will purchase tobacco/nicotine products in the ETM where the percentage of taxes applied to each product category will be distributed between 0% and 100% proportional to their abuse liability score. Abuse liability scores will be scaled such that the product category with the highest abuse liability will be taxed at 100%.
- BehavioralProduct Category Rank
In the product category rank condition, participants will purchase tobacco/nicotine products in the ETM where the tax percentage applied to each product category will be determined by the number of categories and their position in the ranking. The product category with the highest abuse liability will be taxed at 100%; the product with the lowest abuse liability will be taxed at 0%. All other tax rates will be equally spaced across other products based on ranking.
- BehavioralProduct Tiers
In the product tiers condition, participants will purchase tobacco/nicotine products in the ETM where tobacco products will be placed in tax tiers to simplify the existing complex tobacco tax system. The investigators will use three tax tiers (i.e., high tax, medium tax, and no tax), as adopted by four states. Products will be placed into tiers depending on their average score (i.e. no tax: \< 0.33, medium tax: 0.33-0.66, and high tax: \>0.66). Products in the high tax tier will be taxed at 100% and products in the medium tax tier will be taxed at 50%.
Location
- Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTCRoanoke, Virginia