Gary S. Becker

Gary S. Becker was a Nobel-winning economist and the Rose-Marie and Jack R. Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and University Professor of Economics and Sociology at the University of Chicago, has served as a member of the Defense Policy Board since 2002.

Becker and tobacco
Becker performed a study circa 1990 titled "An Empirical Analysis of Cigarette Addiction" (with Kevin M. Murphy of the University of Chicago, and City University of New York economist Michael Grossman). Together they studied annual per capita cigarette consumption from 1955 to 1985. After adjusting the data for such factors as income and demographlc trends, the economists found that a 10 percent increase in cigarette prices reduces current consumption by 4% in the short term, and 7.5% in the long term.