Mostly Harmless Regulation? Electronic Cigarettes, Public Policy and Consumer Welfare

Donald Kenkel, Sida Peng, Michael Pesko and Hua Wang

No 23710, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Electronic cigarettes are a less harmful alternative to combustible cigarettes. We analyze data on e-cigarette choices in an online experimental market. Our data and mixed logit model capture two sources of consumer optimization errors: over-estimates of the relative risks of e-cigarettes; and present bias. Our novel data and policy analysis make three contributions. First, our predictions about e-cigarette use under counter-factual policy scenarios provide new information about current regulatory tradeoffs. Second, we provide empirical evidence about the role consumer optimization errors play in tobacco product choices. Third, we contribute to behavioral welfare analysis of policies that address individual optimization errors.

JEL-codes: I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-reg
Note: EH
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published as Donald S. Kenkel & Sida Peng & Michael F. Pesko & Hua Wang, 2020. "Mostly harmless regulation? Electronic cigarettes, public policy, and consumer welfare," Health Economics, vol 29(11), pages 1364-1377.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w23710.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23710

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w23710

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().