经济学家2014考研.doc

Weight watchers抽烟=减肥Bad news for advocates of higher cigarette taxes对支持提高烟草税的人来说，坏消息来了Apr 13th 2013 |From the print edition“IF IT were totally up to me, I would raise the cigarette tax so high the revenues from it would go to zero,” thundered Michael Bloomberg back in 2002. New York city’s combative mayor has since raised cigarette taxes several times. The effect has been limited, so he wants to try something new. He recently proposed to outlaw discounting cigarettes and displaying them openly in stores.“如果让我全权决策的话，我会大幅度提高烟草税，直到让烟草业利润降为零。”2002年，纽约市市长Michael Bloomberg这番话掷地有声。在那之后，这位有干劲的市长几次提高了烟草税。然而收效并不十分显著，所以他希望尝试一些新举措。最近，市长提议将打折销售香烟和在商店公开陈列香烟视为违法。Whether these measures will be approved—and help—remains to be seen. But Mr Bloomberg may well be right to push for more bans. A new paper by Abel Brodeur of the Paris School of Economics, based on extensive surveys in America, suggests that bans on smoking are not just effective but actually make smokers happier. By not allowing them to light up in restaurants and bars (as New York already does), governments give weaker-willed individuals an excuse to do what they otherwise cannot: stop smoking. As an additional benefit, bans also seem to make spouses of smokers happier.这些条例是否会被通过、是否有效，还有待观察。但布隆伯格市长很可能还会提出更多相关禁令。巴黎经济学院的Abel Brodeur发表了一篇论文，通过在美国大量的调查发现，禁烟条例不仅仅是有效的，事实上还让烟民感到更快乐了。通过禁止人们在餐厅和酒吧抽烟（纽约已经实施这一条例），政府让意志力不坚定的人有了“借口”去戒烟——而这原本是他们自己所办不到的。禁烟的另一个好处是，吸烟的夫妻似乎因此更幸福了。A second paper provides ammunition to those sceptical of higher cigarette taxes as a way of discouraging smoking. John Cawley of Cornell University and Stephanie von Hinke Kessler Scholder of York University looked at how sensitive young American smokers are to higher cigarette prices. Not very, it turns out. That is because a big share—46% of teenage girls and 30% of teenage boys—do not smoke for pleasure, but to stay thin or lose weight.有的人对提高烟草税来降低吸烟率这一举措持怀疑态度，而另一份报告则给这些人提供了有力依据。康奈尔大学的John Cawley和约克大学的Stephanie von Hinke Kessler Scholder就美国