Effect of cigarette tax increase on cigarette consumption in Taiwan.

OBJECTIVES: This study evaluates the effect of a 5 New Taiwan Dollar (NTD 5) Health and Welfare Tax increase on the consumption of domestic and imported cigarettes and cigars. METHODS: Using statistics published annually from 1971 through 2000, we set up a model based on the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) demand model to estimate price and expenditure elasticity coefficients of cigarettes and cigars. RESULTS: Our results showed that the price elasticity coefficients for domestic and imported cigarettes were -0.644 and -0.822. The consumption of imported cigarettes was reduced by 7.51 packs per capita, and the consumption of domestic cigarettes was reduced by 15.21 packs per capita. Total per capita consumption of cigarettes was reduced by 22.72 packs (18%). CONCLUSIONS: From the public health and financial perspectives, the increase in this excise tax on tobacco to the Taiwan government will have significant effect in reducing cigarette consumption; it will also generate additional tax revenues.

Do NMDA receptor kinetics regulate the end of critical periods of plasticity?

Increasing NR2A subunit expression and the associated shortening of the NMDA-EPSC are thought to underlie the loss of diverse types of sensory cortical plasticity. Lu and colleagues (Lu et al., 2001 [this issue of Neuron]) now report that mice lacking the NR2A subunit display normal duration of critical periods of barrel cortex plasticity. Shortening of the NMDA-EPSC is therefore not responsible for the end of these critical periods.