Stanford Health Policy is a joint effort of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Stanford School of Medicine
FSI researchers consider international development from a variety of angles. They analyze ideas such as how public action and good governance are cornerstones of economic prosperity in Mexico and how investments in high school education will improve China’s economy.
They are looking at novel technological interventions to improve rural livelihoods, like the development implications of solar power-generated crop growing in Northern Benin.
FSI academics also assess which political processes yield better access to public services, particularly in developing countries. With a focus on health care, researchers have studied the political incentives to embrace UNICEF’s child survival efforts and how a well-run anti-alcohol policy in Russia affected mortality rates.
FSI’s work on international development also includes training the next generation of leaders through pre- and post-doctoral fellowships as well as the Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program.
This work analyzes the effects of prices, taxes, income, and anti-smoking regulations on the consumption of cigarettes in California (a 25-cent-per-pack state tax increase in 1989 enhances the usefulness of this exercise). Analysis is based on monthly time-series data for 1980 through 1990. Results show a price elasticity of demand for cigarettes in the short run of -0.3 to -0.5 at mean data values, and -0.5 to -0.6 in the long run. We find at least some support for two further hypotheses: that antismoking regulations reduce cigarette consumption, and that consumers behave consistently with the model of rational addiction.