Abstract
The United States has been combating smoking by increasing taxes on tobacco products, limiting advertising, and raising the age limits for buying tobacco products. The effectiveness of these strategies has resulted in years of declining U.S. smoking rates; however, the sales of e-cigarettes have increased dramatically. Calling the surge in e-cigarettes an epidemic, the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is considering the removal of all flavored e-cigarettes from the U.S. market because of their appeal. Since 2009, the FDA has regulated the tobacco industry; however, a debate over whether or not e-cigarettes were tobacco products restricted the FDA from creating certain policies. The e-cigarette policy landscape in the United States has changed significantly as a result of the increase in the popularity of e-cigarette usage. Individual states have now adopted various e-cigarette policies in order to combat e-cigarette usage. This paper will explore e-cigarette policies that will: prohibit e-cigarette use and conventional tobacco smoking indoors in restaurants, bars, and worksites; require a retail license to sell e-cigarettes; prohibit e-cigarette self-service displays (e.g., requirement that products be kept behind the counter or in a locked box); and apply an excise tax to e-cigarettes. The effect of these policies can be measured by examining the change in adult tobacco consumption in the United States. The e-cigarette policies will likely decrease the consumption e-cigarettes; however, these policies may cause consumers to switch to tobacco products and thus increase the consumption of tobacco products. This paper will use a dynamic difference-in-differences method along with 4 dichotomized variables for state policy in order to examine the effect of the e-cigarette policies on adult tobacco usage.