David Buck

Defence research and development, crowding‐out and the peace dividend

Defence R&D is a controversial subject. Critics argue that it “crowds‐out” valuable civil R&D expenditure and drains the civil economy of qualified scientists and engineers (QSEs). This paper assesses the evidence for crowding‐out in the UK. Cointegration techniques are used to test whether there is a negative causal relationship between public defence and civil R&D expenditure. Because the manpower debate has been hampered by the lack of official statistics we develop estimates of numbers of QSEs employed on defence R&D in UK industry over the period 1975–92. Turning to the “Peace Dividend”, our results suggest that a 10% cut in UK defence equipment expenditure will reduce employment levels by 6%. We conclude that in the absence of a negative causal relationship between public defence and civil R&D expenditure there may be a role for public policy in aiding the absorption of displaced defence QSEs into the economy.

Economic and other views of addiction: Implications for the choice of alcohol, tobacco and drug policies

It is the aim of this paper to provide an overview of developments in implicit and explicit economic views of addiction, to contrast these perceptions with the views of other disciplines and discuss the implications for policy. Addictive behaviours have received considerable attention from disciplines other than economics. The nature of addiction and the contribution of psychological, physiological and social factors have been strongly debated within the addictions field for many years. The views of economists are becoming increasingly important because economic studies of consumption, and tax revenue in the case of licit drugs, are one factor when framing policy. It is therefore crucial to know how economists have treated addiction. Have they neglected it and what are the implication if they have? This paper attempts to answer this question by reviewing and discussing the literature in depth and drawing out the implications for policy.

The cost-effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions: What do we know?

AbstractEvidence on cost-effectiveness is becoming more important, particularly at local level in health services where decision-makers are deciding on how to spend devolved budgets. In such an environment it is important for health education and promotion to demonstrate their cost-effectiveness relative to other healthcare interventions if they are to succeed in securing resources in the future. This paper reviews and discusses one of the areas where health education and promotion is most effective – smoking cessation. Despite many effectiveness evaluations existing information on the most likely cost-effective interventions is sparse but several definite conclusions are reached. More research is needed in this area and the potential for computer simulation studies as a possible means of taking this forward is discussed.