Electronic cigarette risk beliefs and usage after the vaping illness outbreak
- PDF / 381,042 Bytes
- 21 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 2 Downloads / 138 Views
Electronic cigarette risk beliefs and usage after the vaping illness outbreak W. Kip Viscusi 1 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract New national survey evidence on electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) risk beliefs indicates that people substantially overestimate the health risks posed by e-cigarettes, both in absolute terms and relative to conventional cigarette risk beliefs. Perceptions of the lung cancer risks and total mortality risks of conventional cigarettes function as prior risk beliefs for e-cigarettes. People believe e-cigarettes are at least 60% as risky as conventional cigarettes. Whether respondents have seen reports of vaping-related illnesses has no significant effect on risk beliefs, but there has been a modest increase in the percentage who believe that e-cigarettes are riskier than cigarettes. Accurate ecigarette beliefs would significantly increase whether people try, currently use, or exclusively use e-cigarettes. Whereas price and taste are the principal drivers of brand choice for conventional cigarettes, use of e-cigarettes is more closely linked to smoking cessation and concern with environmental tobacco smoke. Keywords Electronic cigarettes . E-cigarettes . Vaping . Cigarettes . Smoking . Lung cancer . Mortality . Bayesian JEL Classifications D80 . I12 . I18 . K32
1 Introduction Perceived risks of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), which are also called vaping devices, play a pivotal role with respect to potential market failure. Whether people have accurate assessments of the risks of e-cigarettes affects whether they are incurring risks or foregoing risks that they do not understand. If people underestimate the risks of Rachel Dalafave provided excellent research assistance, and Don Kenkel provided helpful suggestions.
* W. Kip Viscusi [email protected]
1
University Distinguished Professor of Law, Economics, and Management, Vanderbilt Law School, 131 21st Ave. South, Nashville, TN 37203, USA
Journal of Risk and Uncertainty
vaping, the prevalence of e-cigarette usage will exceed the economically efficient amount. Overestimation of the risks creates errors in the opposite direction. Efficient choices between conventional cigarettes and vaping products depend on accurate perceptions of the comparative risks of conventional cigarettes and e-cigarettes. Much of the impetus for smoking e-cigarettes is to seek a safer alternative to conventional cigarettes. These comparative decisions could be flawed because of shortcomings in risk beliefs for e-cigarettes or failures to adequately perceive the relative risks of ecigarettes compared to conventional cigarettes. The new survey results reported in this article document each of these potential market failures, as people greatly overestimate the risks posed by e-cigarettes and underestimate the risk reductions that can be achieved by vaping instead of smoking conventional cigarettes. E-cigarettes are much safer than conventional cigarettes, but they are not entirely risk-free. Public health o
Data Loading...
