TY - JOUR T1 - An overlooked market: loose cigarettes, informal vendors and their implications for tobacco taxation JF - Tobacco Control JO - Tob Control DO - 10.1136/tc-2023-057965 SP - tc-2023-057965 AU - Max Gallien AU - Giovanni Occhiali AU - Hana Ross Y1 - 2023/05/23 UR - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2023/05/22/tc-2023-057965.abstract N2 - Objective To examine the features of markets for loose cigarettes in several low-income and middle-income countries and their effects on tobacco control policies, particularly taxation.Design An analysis of survey data targeting people who smoke in two African, one Southeast Asian and two South Asian countries and retailers across 16 African countries to study loose cigarette markets and examine how prices in these markets move relative to the prices for cigarette packs.Results Markets for loose cigarettes are large, and their consumer base tends to differ from the wider population of people who smoke. Loose cigarette prices are on average higher than those of cigarettes bought in packs, and they respond differently to tax increases, at least partially due to a denomination effect.Conclusions The features of the loose cigarette markets present a challenge for tobacco control policy, especially tobacco tax policy. One way to overcome this challenge is to aim for large, rather than incremental, tax increases.Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. Data may be obtained from the relevant third parties, as detailed in the article. ER -