http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/eric-crampton/ Dr Eric Crampton is Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. He has published work in areas of public choice, constitutional political economy, market failure and paternalism. He lectures at Canterbury on public economics, microeconomic theory and the economics of current policy issues. He blogs at Offsetting Behaviour and can be found @EricCrampton on Twitter. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dont-base-policy-on-crapulous-alcohol-statistics/ Alcohol. The anti-alcohol lobby say just one drink increases your risk of cancer, and news yesterday was that cigarette-warning-style labels will start appearing on bottles of booze. The social costs of alcohol are often cited as an additional reason to crack down on it. Here, Dr Eric Crampton casts a sceptical eye over how that social cost is measured. If I told you that surfing cost the Australian economy a billion dollars and that we consequently should make life jackets compulsory, you could be forgiven for thinking that the number represented some real cost to the community; perhaps the cost of rescuing surfers caught in rips or medical care for those injured in accidents. But if you found out that the vast majority of that figure was the combination of surfers’ expenditures on their boards and the costs of holidays they took heading up to Yallingup, you might think twice about endorsing the policy recommendation. And you might wonder a bit why anybody would have thought those costs could matter for policy. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Eric Crampton) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dont-base-policy-on-crapulous-alcohol-statistics/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dont-base-policy-on-crapulous-alcohol-statistics/#item6273 Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:55:11 +0000 Eric Crampton | Author bios | The Punch