Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
While Massachusetts's comprehensive programme of excise taxes, smoking bans and tobacco control has been argued to have significantly lowered cigarette consumption, this is the first study to examine the comprehensive nature of its programme and to control for factors other than tobacco programmes themselves while examining effects on taxed cigarette sales. Examination indicates strong support for the hypotheses that taxed sales in Massachusetts declined due to price increases, changes in income and smuggling. There is very limited support for the hypothesis that tobacco control spending or smoking bans contributed to falling cigarette sales. Possibilities are discussed that may explain why this study does not support most previous studies. These include failure to control for numerous factors that probably also influenced sales, that effects of tobacco control programmes might differ between states and that previous studies examined shorter time periods. It is hoped that this article will foster further examination of these issues so that we can better understand effectiveness of comprehensive tobacco control programmes when formulating recommendations about how governments should allocate their scarce resources towards such programmes.