Differential price responses for tobacco consumption: implications for tax incidence

Increasing tobacco taxes is considered the most effective an cost-effective policy to reduce tobacco consumption. However, a common objection to tobacco taxes is that they tend to rely disproportionately on the poorest individuals since less affluent smokers incur proportionately greater expenditures on cigarettes compared with more affluent smokers. Such objections usually assume that all smokers throughout the income distribution react similarly to an increase in tobacco prices. But, if less affluent smokers are more sensitive to price changes (ie, they have a higher demand price elasticity), reductions in tobacco consumption should be higher at the bottom of the income distribution. This paper uses data from Argentina’s Household Expenditure Survey to estimate demand price elasticities for tobacco by income and age groups. Results indicate that less affluent smokers present higher demand price elasticities for cigarettes than more affluent ones. A 10% increase in cigarette prices would decrease consumption by 8.5% (4.4%) for the poorest (richest) smokers. In addition, young people are the most elastic group. These differential elasticities have relevant implications in terms of the distributional incidence of increasing tobacco taxes. As less well-off individuals reduce consumption relatively more, they bear a relatively lower tax burden. Thus, tobacco tax increases may not be regressive as is often believed. As a whole, this paper provides policymakers with relevant arguments for policy discussion and the public debate on common objections to increasing tobacco taxes.

Consumer Behaviour in the Accommodation Services Market – a Comparison of Vienna, Bratislava and Prague in 2018

The paper aims to compare three accommodation services markets using empirical data from more than 250 accommodation facilities in specific destinations (Vienna, Bratislava, Prague). The data are available on a daily basis, but the resulting comparison is then performed on a monthly basis within 2018. The comparison is performer based on three basic criteria – occupancy, average daily rate and an indicator of price elasticity of demand. Price elasticity is measured using a log‑log regression analysis. The key findings of the comparison are as follows: (1) The Vienna and Prague markets are similar in terms of occupancy and coefficient of price elasticity. In contrast, the Bratislava market showed statistically significant differences from the other two markets in all the criteria under review. (2) The Bratislava market operates at a significantly lower price range compared to the other markets analysed. In the long term, this market has also been lower in the field of occupancy. (3) The markets in Vienna and Prague respond more dynamically to changes in consumer behaviour by changing prices. (4) The so‑called “November Phenomenon” has been identified, where all indicators in all markets behave unconventionally. (5) All markets have in common the fact that they have shown price‑inelastic demand over the long term, and at the turn of the year, they all face Giffen’s paradox.

Impact of a recent tobacco tax reform in Argentina

The literature on policies for the control of the tobacco epidemic suggests that increasing excise taxes on the consumption of tobacco products is the most cost-effective policy. Cigarette tax structure in Argentina is very complex. All the tax bases for cigarette consumption taxes are related and, therefore, any modification of a tax affects the collection of the rest of the taxes. This is important given that funds raised by one of the taxes, the Special Tobacco Fund (FET), are allocated among the tobacco provinces according to the value of tobacco production. These provinces oppose in the congress to any reform that increase taxes on cigarette consumption that negatively affects these funds. In May 2016, the government decided to increase the rate of one of the taxes, the internal tax, from 60% to 75%. We study the impact on cigarettes’ demand price elasticity, consumption and tax revenues of this tobacco tax reform. Using an Error Correction Model, we estimate short-run and long-run demand price and income elasticities. We find that the tax reform of May 2016 induced an increase in the magnitude, in absolute value, of the short-run demand price elasticity and at the same time increased the funds collected by the FET. We simulate the effects of the tax reform over the government revenues and per-capita consumption of cigarettes showing that additional increments in taxes would increase revenues and diminish consumption of cigarettes.

ESTIMATING THE DEMAND FOR BROADBAND SERVICES IN BRAZIL: ANALYSIS BY A DISCRETE-CHOICE MODEL

ABSTRACT Discrete-choice models were used to estimate the demand for broadband services in Brazil. Results indicate an elastic demand for fixed broadband. The demand price elasticity is greater for municipalities that rely on more than one economic group offering broadband: the monopoly will set the price for the broadband services to minimize competition between plans in the same category. Therefore, consumer’s capability to react to higher prices is reduced. In addition, the possibility of purchasing broadband services in tripleplay bundles has a positive effect on market share in those municipalities with two or more groups providing broadband services.

Assessing the impacts of water on industry–the case of Asia Pacific Breweries (APB)

Industrial water use accounts for 22% of global water consumption and for as much as 60% in high-income countries. Thus, it is a considerable factor when dealing with global water issues. This paper assesses the impacts of water on the brewing industry using the case example Asia Pacific Breweries (APB). By deriving a true cost of water (TCW) via a three-step approach involving (1) desalination, (2) secondary treatment and (3) reclamation, it reflects all water-related risks from physical availability to reputational, environmental, and legal risks in the context of a value-based management framework that embeds sustainability in the company's operational conduct. An excel-based sensitivity model takes into consideration all relevant drivers allowing for a detailed cost breakdown for each of the three steps. The resulting transparency of what drives the TCW yielded that the main components are energy, carbon, and capital costs. As derivatives on all three components exist, they were used to feign a hypothetical water option by replicating its pay-off as a weighted average of energy and carbon derivatives. At APB water accounted for merely 0.4% of total operating costs, but drove 335 times its cost in revenues. The resulting biomass from secondary treatment was also considered for energy recovery through anaerobic digestion and thermal hydrolysis. As a result, secondary treatment energy costs were subsequently reduced by 56%. As a result, the application of discriminatory pricing for industrial end-users of water was, therefore, concluded a viable option. Still, the demand-price elasticity of the company's products needs to be considered when applying said option to avoid the passing on of costs to consumers. A practical approach is considered involving a revenues per m3 of water over the TCW metric to determine the extent of discriminatory pricing and temporary tax breaks to avoid the passing on of costs to consumers.

The Game-Theoretic Approach to Pricing in China's Semi-Deregulated Electricity Market

In Chinas semi-deregulated electricity market, a game-theoretic model has been set between users and power suppliers in order to ensure the whole network voltage load curve stay smooth, as well as to make the suppliers profitable on the basis of the satisfaction of users in power utilization in daily lives. The foundation of the model is the definition of the price elasticity of demand and its characters in micro-economy. According to this model, a Bayesian Nash equilibrium has been put forward based on the demand price elasticity, which can not only smooth the whole network voltage load curve effectively through the reciprocal process between users and power suppliers, but also can optimize the profit of the power suppliers. The simulation results of the voltage load curves and price changes graphs show the effectiveness of modeling simulation.