Evaluating the Impact of Changing Mississippi’s Tobacco Tax

A multiple regression was performed on 37 years of data to determine the impact of raising the tobacco tax on cigarettes by $.24 per pack on cigarette sales in Mississippi. The t-statistic for the slope was significant at the .05 critical alpha level, t(29) =1.69 and p=.05. Thus, we conclude that there is a positive significant relationship between taxes and sales volume. Further, about 91 of the variability in sales volume could be explained by the demand model.