3 Questions: Jonathan Gruber on the cost of smoking
Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed new regulations for e-cigarettes, and in so doing developed a much-debated cost-benefit analysis of smoking — one that discounts the benefits of quitting smoking by 70 percent due to the loss of pleasure involved. MIT’s Jonathan Gruber, a high-profile health care economist, is among the skeptics of the new calculation: He has conducted research on smokers and is co-author of a new piece in the Annals of Internal Medicine, published this week, suggesting that the “lost pleasure” is smaller than the government is currently estimating. Gruber, the Ford Professor of Economics, discussed the issue with MIT News recently. Q. Cigarette labeling and smoking have been the subject of political debate for decades. What is new and surprising in these debates that have sprung up in 2014? A. The major issue at stake is the reach of the FDA in regulating...