Socioeconomic determinants of smoking in contemporary Russia

Factors impacting the initiation and termination of smoking, using Cox's proportional hazard model as the econometric tool, on the basis of RLMS and Goskomstat data on tobacco prices, are being investigated in this paper. The model to explain the amount of consumed cigarettes and the composite model with dependence between quitting and tobacco consumption are constructed. It is shown that the price for cigarettes remains the key factor for the beginning and quitting of smoking; the asymmetric influence of price by sorts of cigarettes is being revealed. The addictive character of cigarettes consumption has been confirmed. Gender and age peculiarities of tobacco products consumption have been revealed, especially for teenagers. Opportunities to reduce smoking have been found out through propagation of a healthy way of life.