Tan, EditaMonteclaros, Jose Ma. Luis P.2025-02-032025-02-032009-01https://selib.upd.edu.ph/etdir/handle/123456789/4344The paper justifies increases in cigarette excise taxes and other anti-smoking regulations by showing the impacts of smoking on health. It shows first that smokers are more likely to have certain illnesses, then highlights that the poor suffer more from illnesses. In order to explain these, the paper turns to the smoking habits of smokers across different wealth classes. After finding that smoking habits are fairly consistent across different social classes, the paper then turns to the opportunity costs of tobacco smoking to explain inequalities in health across wealth classes. The paper uses a microeconomic regression to find that as a household spends a bigger portion of its income on tobacco, it spends less on food and medicine. It is argued that having similar smoking habits as the rich, the poor thus spend a bigger portion of its income on cigarettes, and therefore spend less on food and medicine. The paper also shows that a household foregoes education consumption for cigarette smoking, and argues different developmental implications of smoking to the poor, and to the country. The paper turns to policy implications of these findings, and evaluates the benefits and costs of cigarette-excise taxes. It then discusses the other anti-smoking regulations that were pursued in the country, and suggests that these should be continued, increased, and made to target the poor.enCigaretteCigarette taxGovernment taxTobacco industryCigarette industryThesis