Cigarette taxes lead to obesity

In case you missed it: The Public Interest has a terrific piece on obesity research in its last issue (Summer, 2004). By Inas Rashad and Michael Grossman, the report illustrates, among other things, journalism’s power to publicize complex research findings in a manner intelligible to interested readers. Of course, it helps that Rashad and Grossman are economists—of Georgia State and CUNY respectively—but most of their article is concerned with simply relating the findings of current academic research on various causes of obesity, which include: falling farm prices, which led in the early ‘80s to cheaper grocery prices and more food-per-dollar; high-calorie, easy-to-prepare foods made specifically for the microwave; general declines in physical activity since early ‘80s; increasing numbers of women in the workforce, which leads to increased, high-calorie restaurant-eating. The authors save the best for last however.

Cigarette taxes, they found (and here they’re talking about their own research), have caused people to quit smoking and eat more. "The rise in the real price of cigarettes is the second-most important factor next to the growth in restaurants in the trend in the post-1980 obesity trend. We estimate that it accounts for almost 20 percent of the growth in obesity."