On the web site of Contemporary Economic Policy, a journal published
by the Western Economic Association International, the publisher highlights
the Best Article Award for 2004. The award was granted to an article by
Benjamin C. Alamar and Stanton A. Glantz (2004).
As the title of their article suggests, Alamar and Glantz conclude that
“Smoke-free Ordinances Increase Restaurant Profit and Value.” The final two
sentences of the article are as follows:
These results add to the growing body of literature that should give
restaurant and bar owners a real economic incentive to support
smoke-free laws. Despite the rhetoric that smoke-free laws hurt the
restaurant business, the marketplace indicates that these laws increase
the profits and the values of restaurants and bars and are good for
business. (525)
One naturally wonders: We know that some people like to smoke and prefer
restaurants where they can smoke. What about the restaurant that specifically
caters to smokers? Do Alamar and Glantz say that such a restaurant will benefit
from a ban on its niche? Or do they mean restaurants on the whole? If “on the
whole,” have they adequately accounted for the restaurants and would-have-been
restaurants that lose?