http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21067532
This articles shows how the passing of a law that forbids people from smoking in public places has had some expected and unexpected positive externalities.
The article states that there was a 12% drop of children admitted to hospitals after a law that forbids people from smoking in public places such as restaurants and shops. This is an obvious positive externality because second hand smoking is a common issue that must be and is addressed worldwide. Second hand smoking is almost as bad as smoking itself to younger children and so restricting people from smoking outside where children are exposed to the harmful air produced by the cigarettes creates a positive externality. The risks of health problems (such as sever asthma which is mentioned in the article) caused by the harmful smoke is drastically lowered. Before the law was passed, the number of children admitted to the hospital with severe asthma attacks were increasing by 2%. This shows how the law was extremely helpful in addressing the problem of asthma attacks caused by the second hand smoke. This was the expected positive externality that the government probably predicted.
However, there are also unexpected positive externalities. A lot of people were not very pleased by the passing of this law because they thought that preventing people from smoking in public places would cause them to smoke at home which harms children more than it would if the smoking was at a public place. However, unexpectedly, the passing of the law cause people to change their behavior. Since cigarettes are notorious for being extremely addictive, this positive externality was not and could not have been predicted. The reasoning behind this unexpected change of behavior is due to the fact that people are seeing the positive externalities that come with not smoking at all. This positive externality affects the first externality because people (especially parents in this case) who quit smoking entirely will help the children even more in terms of health related problems. I also think there is another positive externality that arises from this. This other positive externality is that children who grow up during this period of "change" are less likely to smoke in the future because they can see that bad effects it has on people who do smoke and also see a lot less people smoking both at home and in public places.
I personally think that passing this law was a good idea because a lot of positive externalities (both seen and unseen) arose from it. The only negative aspect I can think of currently is that cigarette companies make less profit becand may have to lay off workers which increases
This articles shows how the passing of a law that forbids people from smoking in public places has had some expected and unexpected positive externalities.
The article states that there was a 12% drop of children admitted to hospitals after a law that forbids people from smoking in public places such as restaurants and shops. This is an obvious positive externality because second hand smoking is a common issue that must be and is addressed worldwide. Second hand smoking is almost as bad as smoking itself to younger children and so restricting people from smoking outside where children are exposed to the harmful air produced by the cigarettes creates a positive externality. The risks of health problems (such as sever asthma which is mentioned in the article) caused by the harmful smoke is drastically lowered. Before the law was passed, the number of children admitted to the hospital with severe asthma attacks were increasing by 2%. This shows how the law was extremely helpful in addressing the problem of asthma attacks caused by the second hand smoke. This was the expected positive externality that the government probably predicted.
However, there are also unexpected positive externalities. A lot of people were not very pleased by the passing of this law because they thought that preventing people from smoking in public places would cause them to smoke at home which harms children more than it would if the smoking was at a public place. However, unexpectedly, the passing of the law cause people to change their behavior. Since cigarettes are notorious for being extremely addictive, this positive externality was not and could not have been predicted. The reasoning behind this unexpected change of behavior is due to the fact that people are seeing the positive externalities that come with not smoking at all. This positive externality affects the first externality because people (especially parents in this case) who quit smoking entirely will help the children even more in terms of health related problems. I also think there is another positive externality that arises from this. This other positive externality is that children who grow up during this period of "change" are less likely to smoke in the future because they can see that bad effects it has on people who do smoke and also see a lot less people smoking both at home and in public places.
I personally think that passing this law was a good idea because a lot of positive externalities (both seen and unseen) arose from it. The only negative aspect I can think of currently is that cigarette companies make less profit becand may have to lay off workers which increases