Cigarette demand, health scares and education in Turkey

The purpose of this paper is to examine the demand characteristics of cigarettes in Turkey. Aggregate time-series date for the 1960–88 period are used in estimation. Income and price elasticities of cigarette demand are obtained. The effect of health warning is estimated to reduce cigarette consumption by about 8% since the inception of warnings in 1982. Imports of cigarettes have been allowed since 1984 in addition to advertising of cigarettes in the non-electronic media. The effect of health warnings are found to be stronger than the opposing effect of advertising. The results also suggest that public education about adverse health effects of smoking may be more effective in reducing consumption and less regressive on consumer incomes than raising the price of cigarettes.