November 28, 2011   States that have shifted funds away from tobacco control programs may be missing out on significant savings, according to a new study co-authored by San Francisco State University economist Sudip Chattopadhyay. If these programs were funded at the levels recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), states could save an astonishing 14-20 times more than the cost of implementing the programs. The costs of smoking are felt by the states, mostly through medical costs, Medicaid payments and lost productivity by workers. The evidence is clear that state tobacco control programs have a “sustained and steadily increasing long-run impact” on the demand for cigarettes, Chattopadhyay and his colleague David R. Pieper at University of California, Berkeley write in a paper published online today in the journal Contemporary Economic Policy. Chattopadhyay is the chair of the Economics Department and professor of economics.

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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/sfsu-scs112111.php