Awareness of Tobacco Tax Policy and Public Opinion on Tobacco Tax Reform in Taiwan

Abstract

This research investigates the general public’s tobacco tax policy awareness and opinions on tobacco tax reformin Taiwan. To learn whether people are cognizant of tobacco tax policies and their preferences toward policyreform, we conducted a nationwide telephone survey in October 2016. Empirical methods used in this analysisinclude subgroup analysis and probit models. Our subgroup analysis shows that smokers, males, and individualswith more years of schooling are more likely to be knowledgeable about tobacco tax policies. As for public opinionon tobacco tax policy reform, non-smokers and more educated people prefer a tobacco tax hike policy. Femalesrelative to males prefer to use regulatory programs to curb cigarette consumption. More educated people preferan earmarked tax to a general excise tax. Males and more educated people tend to support a higher ratio ofearmarked surcharge to overall tax revenue. The probit estimation results show that factors influencing people’stobacco policy awareness include smoking status, smokers in the household, gender, age, education, and maritalstatus. The estimation results also demonstrate that, smoking status, gender, age, education, and marital statusare important factors in determining people’s preference for tobacco tax policy reform. To enhance the public’sawareness of tobacco tax policies, the government could consider education campaigns, mass media, and socialnetworking sites to provide information targeting certain groups of people such as non-smokers, females, and lesseducated individuals. To gain more public support of tobacco tax hike proposals, we also suggest that thegovernment address the rationales behind taxing tobacco products and regularly examine whether the allocationof an earmarked surcharge is desirable and efficient. Lastly, in light of the fact that many people support non-pricepolicies, we recommend that the government adopt diversified programs to curb tobacco consumption, in additionto increasing tobacco taxes.