Why Are Tobacco and Alcohol Control Policies So Different?–A Political-Economy Explanation

Zhihao Yu ()

No 22-05, Carleton Economic Papers from Carleton University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper shows that the emergence (and the maintenance) of the striking different policy regimes applied to tobacco and alcohol in the U.S. and some other countries like the UK- that has increasingly puzzled many health policy experts- could be explained by their very different levels of industry concentration. The maintenance of the policy differences was further enhanced by the persistent government mass media anti-smoking campaigns, which ultimately contributed to the exclusion of the tobacco industry from direct nd formal involvement in the policy-making processes. The model can also explain the very different levels of tobacco industry' political contributions before and after 2002, as well as the lack of government effort of anti-smoking campaigns in Canada.

Keywords: tobacco and alcohol control policies; anti-smoking campaigns; government mass media campaigns; political contribution; lobbying (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 2022-05-15
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-pol
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Published: Carleton Economics Working Papers

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