This paper shows that smoking intensity, i.e. the amount of nicotine extracted per cigarette smoked, responds to changes in excise taxes and tobacco prices. We exploit data covering the period 1988 to 2006 across many US states. Moreover, we provide new evidence on the importance of cotinine measures in explaining long-run smoking behaviour and we investigate the sensitivity of smoking cessation to changes in excise taxes and their interaction with smoking intensity.

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27 September 2012     Paper Number CEPDP1167

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This CEP discussion paper is published under the centre's Labour programme.