{"doi":"10.1371/journal.pone.0320023","title":"The impacts of product characteristics and regulatory environment on smokers’ preferences for tobacco and alcohol: Evidence from a volumetric choice experiment","abstract":"OBJECTIVE: Concurrent use of alcohol and cigarettes is well-documented in the literature. However, it is unclear how e-cigarette regulations in a growing number of localities impact the use of tobacco and alcohol in the US. This study aims to evaluate the impacts of excise taxes, tobacco use restrictions in restaurants/bars, and availability of alcohol flavor in e-cigarettes on tobacco consumption, and their cross impacts on alcohol consumption. METHOD: A total of 181 US adult smokers who were using e-cigarettes and consuming alcohol participated in online volumetric choice experiments and reported on the quantity they would purchase among cigarettes, closed-system e-cigarettes, beer, and one other alcohol product (wine/liquor) under varying policy scenarios. RESULTS: Estimated own-price elasticities of demand for beer, liquor/wine, and cigarettes were -0.10, -0.11, and -0.16, respectively (p < 0.001). Higher beer (cross-price elasticity = 0.13) and liquor/wine prices (cross-price elasticity = 0.05) increased e-cigarette consumption (p < 0.05). If e-cigarettes were allowed in bars/restaurants, their consumption increased by 2.4 units (p < 0.001), and if cigarettes were allowed in bars/restaurants, e-cigarette consumption increased by 1.9 units (p < 0.01), relative to the mean consumption level. Greater reported weekly spending on alcohol and/or tobacco was associated with higher consumption of all products (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Higher taxes or prices may reduce the consumption of beer, liquor/wine, and cigarettes. E-cigarettes are economic substitutes for alcohol among smokers who are currently drinking and using e-cigarettes. Regulating tobacco indoor use will have an impact on e-cigarette consumption.","journal":"PLoS ONE","year":2025,"id":532070,"datarank":0.20794415416798362,"base_score":1.3862943611198906,"endowment":1.3862943611198906,"self_citation_contribution":0.20794415416798362,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.20794415416798362,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9497,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":371068,"name":"Ce Shang","orcid":"0000-0002-8838-4250","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":431833,"name":"Van Vuong","orcid":"0000-0003-2140-9772","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":380435,"name":"Jidong Huang","orcid":"0000-0002-3425-9155","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":404936,"name":"Terry F. Pechacek","orcid":"0000-0003-4887-1254","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":380434,"name":"Scott R. Weaver","orcid":"0000-0003-3155-4041","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1266774,"name":"Shaoying Ma","orcid":"0000-0002-6086-0622","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":87,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:51:18.928280Z","pmid":"40073034","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}