Assessment of the economic impact of the Law 28/2005 of healthcare measures against smoking

Presenter: Anna García-Altés , Agència de Salud Pública de Barcelona

Abstract

Background
Given the negative impact of tobacco addiction on population’s health, in recent years many European countries have adopted restrictive politics on tobacco consumption. In Spain, the Law 28/2005 of healthcare measures against smoking came into effect on January 1st 2006. Besides the improvement in health status, this kind of laws have also economic implications as a consequence of the smaller consumption of healthcare resources and its impact in the hospitality and tobacco manufacturer sectors, so they tend to generate reluctance.

Objectives
To assess the economic impact of the Law 28/2005 of health care measures against smoking in Spain in the hospitality sector and the tobacco manufacturer sector.

Methods
Pre-post with control study. Variables of interest were analyzed before and after the approval of the law in the Spanish population and in Portugal, using difference in differences methods. Additionally, the trend of the selected variables was analyzed in the period 2004-2007. The variables analyzed were: sales volume and employment rate in the hospitality sector, and number of cigarettes sold and employment rate in the tobacco manufacturer sector. Information sources used are: Annual services survey, Survey of working population, Commission of the tobacco market, and Population census.

Results
The trend analysis allows to see some preliminary results. In Spain, the employment rate in the hospitality sector in the first quarter of 2004 was 1098.7 thousand, and 1342.2 thousand in the first quarter of 2007. The number of businesses in the hospitality sector has changed from 302,825 in 2004 to 308.947 in 2007. In Portugal, the employment rate in the hospitality sector was 265.9 thousand in 2004 and 266.9 thousand in 2006. The number of businesses in the hospitality sector was 83,017 in 2004 and 87.482 in 2006. The employment rate in the tobacco sector in the first quarter of 2004 was 7.2 thousand, and 8.8 thousand in the first quarter of 2007. The number of cigarettes sold has decreased from 4,663,050,132 in 2004 to 4,455,138,251 in 2007, although its economic value has increased. In Portugal, the employment rate in the tobacco manufacturer sector in 2004 was 206.8 thousand and 219.5 thousand in 2006.

Conclusions
These preliminary results show that the law would not had any negative impact in the hospitality sector, nor in the employment rate in the tobacco sector. Generated reluctances would be groundless, as it has also been demonstrated in other countries where this law has been evaluated.