Taxing Consumption and the Take-up of Public Assistance: The Case of Cigarette Taxes and Food Stamps
利用2001-2012年美国各州香烟税差异，研究发现香烟税提高会促使低收入吸烟家庭更多申请食品券，而非吸烟家庭则无此反应。
We exploit cigarette tax variation across US states from 2001 to 2012 to show how taxing inelastic consumption goods can induce low-income households to enroll in public assistance programs. Using a novel household panel of monthly food stamp enrollment from the Current Population Survey, we enrich standard cigarette tax difference-in-differences models with an additional control group: nonsmoking households. Smoking households are treated with higher taxes, while nonsmoking households are not. Marginal smoking households respond to increases in cigarette taxes by taking up food stamps at rates higher than smoking households in other states and nonsmoking households in the same state.