THE VALUE OF RISK-FREE CIGARETTES - DO SMOKERS UNDERESTIMATE THE RISK?

Abstract

The health risk of smoking is valued using the contingent valuation method, applied to a Swedish sample of smokers. The respondents were asked to put a value on newly developed cigarettes with no associated health risks. The average additional willingness to pay for the new cigarettes is estimated to be between10 and 41 SEK per packet. Using medical data on life shortening effects of smoking, the results indicate fairly reasonable values put on a lost life year, compared to existing estimates based on other methods. However, there are remaining methodological questions and we found little sensitivity to scope.