Replication data for: Playing with Fire: Cigarettes, Taxes, and Competition from the Internet

This paper documents the rise of the Internet as a source of state tax-free cigarettes and its impact on taxed sales elasticities. Using data on cigarette tax rates, taxable cigarette sales and individual smoking rates by state from 1980 to 2005 merged with data on Internet penetration, this paper documents that there has been a substantial increase in the sensitivity of taxable cigarette sales to state tax rates that is correlated with the rise of Internet usage within states. The estimates imply that the increased sensitivity from cigarette smuggling over the Internet has lessened the revenue generating potential of cigarette tax increases significantly, although states are still far from the revenue-maximizing tax rates. (JEL D12, H25, H31, H71, L66)

本文记录了互联网作为各州免征州消费税卷烟采购渠道的兴起，及其对卷烟应税销售弹性的影响。本文整合了1980年至2005年各州的卷烟税率、应税卷烟销量与个人吸烟率数据，并结合互联网普及率数据，研究发现应税卷烟销量对州税率的敏感度显著提升，且该变化与各州互联网使用量的增长呈显著相关关系。估算结果表明，由互联网卷烟走私带来的敏感度提升，已显著削弱了卷烟增税的创收潜力，尽管各州距离实现收入最大化的税率仍有较大差距。（JEL D12, H25, H31, H71, L66）