The Case Against Smoking Bans

Abstract:     
In recent months, numerous localities and states have banned smoking in public places (i.e., privately owned places to which members of the public are invited). Such sweeping bans are typically justified on grounds that they alleviate externalities, shape individuals' preferences in a desirable manner, and reduce risks. This essay rebuts the externality, preference-shaping, and risk-reduction arguments for smoking bans and contends that such bans are unnecessary and, on the whole, utility-reducing.

Keywords: smoking, smoking bans, externalities, risk regulation, health and safety regulation, endogenous preferences, preference-shaping

JEL Classifications: D62, D61, I12, I18, K32

Accepted Paper Series