Cigarette Taxes Can Help Cure Two of Greece’s Ills: Peter Orszag
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Feb. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Among all the trials andtribulations that define Greece these days, one that hasreceived relatively little attention is its sky-high smokingrate. Greece’s is the highest in the Organization for EconomicCooperation and Development. Greece is an outlier also in thatits smoking rate has risen significantly over the past decade.
The country’s fiscal crisis may therefore have a silverlining: It has forced the government to raise tobacco taxesmodestly, and this already appears to be reducing smoking rates.Still, much more could be done.