Toward Optimal E-cigarette Policy

This chapter explores the theme of policy optimizationOptimization with regard to e-cigarettes, discussing the elements necessary to identify the best policy toward e-cigarettes. The tools available to regulators are reviewed, and then basic principles to guide regulation are proposed. The inherent tradeoffs—chiefly, the promise of e-cigarettes to help adult smokers achieve cessation versus the possibility of more uptake by youth—are first described and then formally modeled. Next, the social welfareSocial welfare approach to crafting optimal policy is explored. The social welfareSocial welfare functionSocial Welfare Function (SWF) is sketched but not fully mathematically specified because (a) the precise harms of e-cigarettes relative to cigarettes are unknown and the evidence for their true causal effects on smoking cessationSmoking cessation and initiation continues to evolve and (b) the relative importance of the various non-welfarist considerations (equityEquity, for example) in the objective function must be determined by the judgment or political processes of the regulated communities rather than imposed from without. However, many practical implications of taking the social welfare approach are presented and tentative conclusions about what optimal policy might look like in practice are offered.