Improved Risk Information, the Demand for Cigarettes, and Anti-tobacco Policy.

This paper purports to develop a simple microeconomic model designed to shed light on behavioral change induced by improved information about smoking risks. It predicts the conditions in which improved information indeed increases the demand for cigarettes. After recalling the economic rationale of an anti-tobacco policy, the article points out a few startling implications of improved information about the risks of smoking. Copyright 2001 by Kluwer Academic Publishers