Exploring The Political Economy And Social Philosophy of Vincent And Elinor Ostrom

This title discusses the phenomenon of smoking as a behavioural disease and the associated costs. The author details the consequences of smoking, in addition to the detrimental effects caused by second-hand tobacco smoke exposure as a health risk to children as well as to the general public. The central contribution of Joshua’s work is to address these concerns in terms of the issues of free choice and the market. Considering the various restrictive policies designed to reduce smoking’s prevalence, including the banning of smoking in public places, and the inclusion of warning labels on cigarette packets, Joshua carefully analyses potential economic remedies to the problem of smoking, notably the Pigovian tax. Finally, the book concludes with a highly relevant discussion of corporate social responsibility, and the role that this might play in anti-smoking projects.

John Maynard Keynes wrote to his grandchildren more than fifty years ago about their economic possibilities, and thus about our own: "I see us free, there­ fore, to return to some of the most sure and certain principles of religion and traditional virtue - that avarice is a vice, that the exaction of usury is a misde­ meanour. . . . We shall once more value ends above means and prefer the good to the useful" ("Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren," pp. 371-72).