First of all I'd like to talk about article about smoking
problem in the UK.
It says that smoking costs to NHS billions. Only in this
year it costs £2.7 bn compared with £1.7 bn a decade ago.
It is really huge government spending and the government
is trying to control smoking.
The first way of controlling smoking is to putting tobacco
products under the counter so customers can't see cigarettes.
I think that it is a good idea because the first thing that
customers see is a lot of cigarettes next to a seller and
of course it is remaind them about smoking. So I think
it will help.
The second way is to removing branding and logos from
all tobacco packaging. Young people prefer to buy cigarettes
with beautiful packaging with different colours and with words
such as `smooth` etc. They think that this cigarettes
are less harmful. So maybe if government band all logos and
branding it will help to decrease number of smokers.
The third way is to band all cigarette vending machines
It is really good idea because it is easier to use vending
machines and everyone will buy it also they are everywhere.
So why smoking is a market failure? At first we know that
smoking is a negative externality because it has negative
effect on third parties.
Also cigarettes are demerit good because it has negative
effect on your health. The main problem is that we can't
measure this negative effect and can't include it in price of
this good.
a) What is the economic argument for banning smoking in
public places?
As I said before smoking is a negative externality thus it
effects on third parties. For example if I'm non-smoker
and I stay with somebody who smokes it will affect on me too.
b) To what extent do you think a £50 fine for being caught
will reduce the market failure?
Well I think it will help because people will not smoke in
public place rather than pay £50 fine. Of course it will not
refund externel cost that society pay for this negative effect
but still it's better than nothing.
No comments:
Post a Comment