Are the risks of smoking exaggerated? Has there been an open and rational discussion about the risks of smoking? This book attempts to answer these and many other questions about smoking. It provides a detailed empirical presentation on smoking behavior as a risky consumer decision. Using new empirical data based on several national and regional surveys, Viscusi addresses several issues, including: the sources of information that people have about the risks of smoking, the accuracy of their perceptions of risks associated with smoking, and the consistency of smoking decisions with other risky behavior--scrutinizing issues such as whether smokers value risk differently than those who wear safety belts. Viscusi also looks at the differences in age groups and how they assess these risks based on public information. He provides new insight into the degree to which individuals understand smoking risks and take these risks into account in their smoking behavior. With its detailed empirical data and its examination of individual decision-making processes, this work will interest researchers in public health, public policy analysis, psychology, and economics, as well as anyone concerned with this important issue.
Industry Reviews
"Well written and accessible to a broad audience....The book is well worth reading for anyone interested in these topics."--Journal of Economic Literature
"A thought provoking book that will be of interest to researchers and policy makers concerned with smoking and public health."--British Medical Journal
"As much as any economist, Viscusi has undertaken the difficult task of disciplining formal models with detailed observation of actual judgements and behaviors. Smoking: Making the Risky Decision is a milestone in this long-term project, a book with theoretical and practical importance."--Baruch Fischhoff, Carnegie Mellon University
"This book combines two disciplines, cognitive psychology and the economics of risk, to make an important contribution to the smoking debate. Viscusi shows that persons in all age groups overestimate smoking risks, as theory predicts, and that persons behave rationally respecting the smoking decision given their perception of the facts. After these findings, the smoking decision can justifiably be regulated only in consequence of third party effects, not
because consumers make poor health choices.--Alan Schwartz, Yale Law School
"This book has a point of view that is underrepresented in the debate over smoking policy--that the objective of public policy should not be a smoke-free society, but risk taking based on accurate information and promoting competition for safer cigarettes."--Joseph P. Newhouse, Harvard Medical School
"Well written and accessible to a broad audience....The book is well worth reading for anyone interested in these topics."--Journal of Economic Literature
"A thought provoking book that will be of interest to researchers and policy makers concerned with smoking and public health."--British Medical Journal
"As much as any economist, Viscusi has undertaken the difficult task of disciplining formal models with detailed observation of actual judgements and behaviors. Smoking: Making the Risky Decision is a milestone in this long-term project, a book with theoretical and practical importance."--Baruch Fischhoff, Carnegie Mellon University
"This book combines two disciplines, cognitive psychology and the economics of risk, to make an important contribution to the smoking debate. Viscusi shows that persons in all age groups overestimate smoking risks, as theory predicts, and that persons behave rationally respecting the smoking decision given their perception of the facts. After these findings, the smoking decision can justifiably be regulated only in consequence of third party effects, not
because consumers make poor health choices.--Alan Schwartz, Yale Law School
"This book has a point of view that is underrepresented in the debate over smoking policy--that the objective of public policy should not be a smoke-free society, but risk taking based on accurate information and promoting competition for safer cigarettes."--Joseph P. Newhouse, Harvard Medical School
"Viscusi's book will provide the intellectual basis and framework for a long overdue reassessment of the role of government in protecting consumers and workers from certain types of risky behavior. It should come as no surprise that the government has once again been overzealous in their protection of consumers and workers from the dangers of smoking by mandating hazard warnings on packages, restricting television advertising and imposing restrictions on where
smoking is permitted. Viscusi analyzes the government's actions and offers us some interesting routs out of the swamp of overprotection."--Robert D. Tollison, George Mason University
"An important book. It is a forceful challenge ot regulators and academic sin marketing and public policy, especially those who have argued that consumers are simply unable to make rational decisions about smoking and other risks. Anyone who ignores this book will be ceding essential territory to the province of market-oriented economists."--Journal of Public Policy & Marketing
"This is a first-rate study and an important contribution to risk assessors and readers interested in public health, public policy, psychology, economics, and the smoking debate in general."--Risk Analysis
"This original and penetrating study offers the reader a wealth of fascinating results by focusing upon a most unpredictable quality: the individual's response to risk....Viscusi's findings and aruments are controversial, and are almost certain to be widely discussed....Yet whatever discomfort Viscusi's findings may produce, he has done public discourse, and his profession, a commendable service."--The Public Interest
