The Effectiveness of Anti-Smoking Legislation: A Review

Abstract

This survey focuses on government efforts to curb the use of undesirable goods, notably tobacco products. We synthesize the economics literature and examine the effectiveness of government curbs on tobacco consumption through nonprice controls (such as bans on cigarette advertising, health warnings, and workplace smoking bans) and price measures (or higher prices through higher taxes). This literature review is unique in that we do not merely aim to provide a summary of the literature. Rather, our main focus is to draw conclusions from the literature regarding the effectiveness of alternate policy measures across countries in checking smoking and to provide directions/suggestions for extending the scope of government intervention to other tobacco products.