Using experimental auctions to examine demand for E-cigarettes

Abstract

Background: E-cigarettes are the latest in a line of potentially reduced exposure products that have garnered interest among smokers. Methods: In this paper, we use experimental auctions to estimate smokers' demand for e-cigarettes and to assess the impact of advertisements on willingness to pay. These are actual auctions with winners and losers, which means hypothetical biases often seen in surveys are minimized. Results: We find smokers have positive demand for e-cigarettes, and that the print advertisements used in our study had greater effectiveness than video ads (b = 2.00, p