Diversion Research

Yann Bramoullé (), Charles Figuieres () and Mathis Preti ()
Additional contact information
Yann Bramoullé: Aix-Marseille Univ., CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France and CEPR, https://www.amse-aixmarseille.fr/en/members/bramoulle
Charles Figuieres: Aix-Marseille Univ., CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France, https://www.amse-aixmarseille.fr/en/members/figuieres
Mathis Preti: Aix-Marseille Univ., CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France, https://www.amse-aixmarseille.fr/en/members/preti

No 2518, AMSE Working Papers from Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France

Abstract: Between 1954 and 1998, the tobacco industry funded more than 1,900 research projects at a total cost of $355 million, on topics such as the roles of heredity and nutrition in cancer. Even though legitimate, this research was intended to divert attention from the harmful effects of tobacco. We provide the first formal analysis of such diversion research. We show that special interests may have strong incentives to affect the scientific agenda, even when the research itself is unbiased. This form of scientific lobbying yields large welfare losses and raises concerns about the private funding of research.

Keywords: Scientific uncertainty; scientific lobbying; private research funding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2025-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-ppm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.amse-aixmarseille.fr/sites/default/fil ... rs/wp_2025_nr_18.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:aim:wpaimx:2518

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in AMSE Working Papers from Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France AMU-AMSE - 5-9 Boulevard Maurice Bourdet, CS 50498 - 13205 Marseille Cedex 1. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Gregory Cornu ().