TY  - JOUR
AU  - Viscusi,W. Kip
TI  - Cigarette Taxation and the Social Consequences of Smoking
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 4891
PY  - 1994
Y2  - October 1994
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4891
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4891.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School
131 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37203-1181
Tel: 615/343-7715
E-Mail: kip.viscusi@vanderbilt.edu
M1  - published as W. Kip Viscusi. "Cigarette Taxation and the Social Consequences of Smoking," in James M. Poterba, editor, "Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 9" MIT Press (1995)

M2  - featured in NBER digest on 1995-02-16
AB  - This paper assesses the appropriate cigarette tax needed to address potential market failures.  There is no evidence of inadequate risk decisions by smokers regarding their own welfare.  Detailed calculations of the financial externalities of smoking indicate that the financial savings from premature mortality in terms of lower nursing home costs and retirement pensions exceed the higher medical care and life insurance costs generated.  The costs of environmental tobacco smoke are highly uncertain, but of potentially substantial magnitude.  Even with recognition of these costs, current cigarette taxes exceed the magnitude of the estimated net externalities.
ER  -