Tobacco and Public Health - TCSC Indonesia

338
TOBACCO AND WOMEN
BOX 19.1: A PACK OF MARLBORO IS EQUAL TO …
% of Daily Income:
66.3%—China
62.5%—Moldova
62%—Pakistan
60%—Papua New Guinea (BAT’s Benson and Hedges)
56%—Ghana
56%—Bangladesh (15% of average income of the wealthiest 5% of the population)
30%—Romania
28%—Bulgaria
14%—France
6%—US (using Marlboro price in Oregon)
Source: Global Partnerships (2001)
consumption (Townsend et al. 1994; USDHHS 1998) and postpone initiation of
smoking (Lewit et al. 1997). For example, tax increases in Canada between 1982 and
1993 led to a steep increase in the real price of cigarettes and consumption fell considerably.
When tax was reduced in an attempt to counter smuggling, consumption rose
sharply again until a subsequent tax increase in 1995, when consumption levelled
off (World Bank 1999). Increases in the price of tobacco appears to have a disproportionately
greater impact on low- and middle-income countries than in high-income
countries, and among lower socio-economic groups in high-income countries
(Townsend et al. 1994).
There has been very little economic research on gender sensitivity to price in developing
countries. Research from developed countries is somewhat conflicting (Jacobs
2001). In the US, for example, it has been found that men, particularly young men, are
most sensitive to price (Lewit et al. 1981; Lewit and Coate 1982). While most British
research has concluded that women are more price sensitive than men. Price was found
to have a significant effect on the prevalence of smoking in women in the lowest
socio-economic groups where prevalence is highest. However, the number of cigarettes
smoked by women on low income seemed not to vary with price changes in the
expected way. It has been suggested that while they may respond more than other
groups to price increases by quitting, those who continue to smoke, will smoke
cheaper, smaller, hand-rolled, or smuggled cigarettes rather than reduce the number of
cigarettes smoked (Jacobs 2001; Wiltshire et al. 2001).