#Health spending has outpaced economic growth in all #OECD countries over past 20 years https://t.co/EJYt7fvVxm #GDP pic.twitter.com/4RyDEEGqwS
— OECD Governance (@OECDgov) February 9, 2016
Few vegetarians are vegetarians by choice
22 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in development economics, health economics
British e-cigarette usage by current smoking status
21 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health economics Tags: economics of smoking, meddlesome preferences, nanny state
The majority of smokers try an e-cigarette. To the extent to which an e-cigarette is a gateway drug to giving up smoking, that is important development.
Source: Office of National Statistics, E-cigarette use in Great Britain, 2015.
What does it mean to oppose #GMOs and #goldenrice?
21 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in environmental economics, health economics Tags: antiscience left, cranks, GMOs, Greenpeace, New Zealand Greens, precautionary principle, Quacks
British e-cigarette usage, 2015
20 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health economics Tags: economics of smoking, meddlesome preferences, nanny state
A many young people have tried an e-cigarette or have used one in the past.
Source: Office of National Statistics, E-cigarette use in Great Britain, 2015.
Gary Becker on the weak case for junk food taxes @JordNZ @dpfdpf
20 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health economics, liberalism, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: do gooders, food police, junk food taxes, meddlesome preferences, nanny state, sugar taxes
Source: Gary Becker Fat Taxes, or Just Fat? | Hoover Institution (2010).
Most healthcare expenditures are in the last 3 to 6 months of life. Smokers and overeaters live shorter lives. This can save more than it costs to the health budget. That finding is sufficiently frequent as to put the fiscal case for junk food taxes and sugar taxes on the canvas but still with a chance of getting back up to fight on.
At a minimum, it makes junk food and sugar taxes a legitimate topic for honest disagreement. That is before you consider that people have the right to live their lives according to their own lights and make a few sometimes big mistakes along the way as part of finding their way.
Digital technologies spread faster than sanitation in low and middle income countries.
20 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, health economics
Gary Becker on the weak case for a fat tax
19 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, economic history, Gary Becker, health economics, technological progress
Smoking – where are the externalities?
19 Feb 2016 2 Comments
in applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, health economics, politics - New Zealand, public economics
It will be a slow train coming before the Morgan Foundation calls for a cut in the tobacco tax because the optimal Pigovian tax on it is already too high from the perspective of externalities or the burden on the public health budget.
Source: Cigarette Taxation and the Social Consequences of Smoking | Heartland Institute.
I think smoking is disgusting and unhealthy but that does not give me the right to regulate the disgusting habits of others. Where would I start in regulating risk-taking? I would have to start with swimming, tramping and biking. They are all high-risk activities of the self-righteous? Not everything others do that I do not like causes an externality.
Few economists work on the economics of smoking other from the starting point that it should be reduced. Those that do not share that starting point such as Robert Tollison, Gary Anderson and William Shughart are subject to relentless personal abuse. They are immediately denounced as the paid whores of the tobacco industry.
That was one of the reasons I got interested in the economics of smoking. There must be something in the case made by Robert Tollison and others questioning tobacco taxes if the first line of argument against them is you are saying that because someone paid, you low down dog.
Renewable energy is the biggest air pollution killer out there
18 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in development economics, energy economics, environmental economics, health economics
Source: World Health Organisation.
The declining death rates from cancer
17 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, health economics Tags: cancer, life expectancies, The Great Escape
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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