Background:
There is evidence that tax/pricing policies that reduce cigarette affordability can help curb cigarette consumption.

Objective:
This study investigates the role of cigarette affordability on smoking behavior among adult smokers in Kosovo, using data from the Survey on Tobacco Consumption in Southeastern Europe (STCSEE) 2019 and the Household Budget Survey (HBS).

Methods:
Unit values and disposable household income were used to calculate cigarette affordability. Cigarette consumption was measured using the number of cigarettes smoked per day reported by the survey respondents. After running the diagnostic checks and confirming that the presence of heteroskedasticity is not an issue, OSL methodology was employed to empirically estimate the relationship. OLS estimates are considered the optimal estimates, particularly in relatively small samples, since they possess optimum properties and have minimum variance in the class of unbiased linear estimators.

Results:
The results suggest that lower affordability is related to lower tobacco consumption in Kosovo, and that residents of the capital and largest municipalities in Kosovo smoke less. Furthermore, the results suggest males smoke more than females. But no evidence is found that consumption differs by education level.

Conclusions:
This study provides evidence that tax/pricing policies that reduce cigarette affordability can help curb cigarette consumption among adults as well as elderly smokers in Kosovo.