Econometric Studies of Advertising, Advertising Restrictions and Cigarette Demand: A Survey

Abstract

Over the past two decades economists many market researchers and statisticians have debated in the learned journals a number of issues relating to advertising and cigarette consumption. The main question has been, does aggregate cigarette advertising affect total market sales of the product? Another controversial topic which has been discussed is the observed or likely effect upon cigarette demand of cigarette advertising restrictions, including complete bans. This article is a critical review of the major papers published in this area, and indicates what appear to be their main, reliable conclusions on these issues.