Corrupted tobacco economists network, Part 36: even more pro-tobacco books

Overview of previous posts here

Charging beneficiaries for public services (1989)

Probably the authors liked the money they made writing books and in 1988, Tollison and Wagner proposed writing a book Public Services: User Charges and Earmarked Taxes in Principle and Practice (notice Wagner uses the letterhead of GMU)


Tobacco Institute employee Martin Gleason wrote (May 31, 1989)

In June, Gleason added

And, in an undated memo

This time Richard Wagner was the lead author, perhaps to give Tollison a bit lower profile as he already led two other tobacco books. Other authors included Gary M Anderson, Bruce Yandle, Dwight R. Lee, Henri Lepage, Mwangi S. Kimenyi, James M. Buchanan and Fred S. McChesney.

The two non-network members are "Nobel Prize" winner James M. Buchanan (his name pops up everywhere in the LTDL, and he was involved in the 1984 workshop leading to the network) and French libertarian economist Henri Lepage (member of several of the same think tanks as the other economists, and a current member of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)).

Even though Wagner was the first author, Tollison charged the Tobacco Institute

The fourth invoice also charged $36,250, so probably the industry paid $145,000, exactly the amount the authors proposed

Buchanan must have earned more because he held a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, explaining his high market value: how many politicians would dare to say a Nobel Prize winning economist was wrong on economy ?

It is clear the book was promoted the same way as Smoking and the State

The tobacco economists network Part 24 of many

Overview of previous posts here

Overview of meetings

1985
Public Choice Society	William F. Shughart II	Thomas Borcherding	Dwight Lee
	Fred McChesney	Robert D. Tollison
1986
Southwestern Social Science Meeting	Keith Watson	Joseph M. Jadlow	Robert D. Tollison
	Robert Ekelund, Jr.	Richard E. Wagner	Henry N. Butler
Eastern Economic Association Meeting	George E. Hoffer	Robert D. Tollison	Michael D. Pratt
	Gary M. Anderson	William Shughart, II	John H. Bowman
1988
Western Economic Association	Dwight R. Lee	Richard Wagner	Paul W. Wilson
	Thomas Borcherding	Benjamin Zycher
Atlantic Economic Conference	Dwight R. Lee	Richard Wagner	Bruce Yandle
	Robert Staaf
Southern Economic Association	Robert Ekelund Jr.	Dwight R. Lee	Randall Holcombe
	Joseph Jadlow	Henry Butler
1989
Public Choice Society	Robert D. Tollison	Gary M. Anderson	Bruce L. Benson
	Richard Wagner	David Gay	Dwight R. Lee
Southwestern Social Science	Dwight R. Lee	Richard McKenzie	David Gay
	Edward Price	Richard Wagner
Southern Economic Association	Robert B. Ekelund	Richard W. Ault	Keith Watson
	John D. Jackson	Mark Thornton	Henry N. Butler
	Richard Saba	James Savarese
1990
Southern Economic Association	Robert B. Ekelund	Richard W. Ault	Keith Watson
	John D. Jackson	Mark Thornton	Richard Saba
Atlantic Economic Society	Richard Wagner	Dwight R. Lee	Fred McChesney
	Robert Tollison	Kevin Grier	Bruce Yandle
Western Economic Association	Richard Wagner	Daniel P.  Williamson	Dwight R. Lee
	Benjamin Zycher	Gary M. Anderson
1991
Western Economic Association	Richard Wagner	Steve Jackstadt	Dwight R. Lee
	Benjamin Zycher
Southwestern Social Science Association	Robert Ekelund Jr.	Dwight R. Lee	Robert Tollison
	Richard W. Ault	John Keith Watson	John D. Jackson

Apparently, the industry wanted feedback, as there are reports of the meetings, such as one written by Dwight R. Lee and one by Richard Wagner. The reports show  the sessions usually were attended by 20 to 25 people, sometimes only a dozen or fifteen. 

Thus the industry paid a lot (in 1991: $5,000 per economist) to reach virtually no one. Perhaps this is one of the reasons the industry in the 1990's shifted to working with think tanks. The industry also stopped sending economists to these conferences after 1991 becaused the Tobacco Institute faced a $1 million budget cut that year (this will be explored in another blogpost).

There may have been more meetings (there is no LTDL  record of one in 1987) but the point is clear: the LTDL shows us for years the tobacco industry was able to spread its message to non-network economists by using an anti-tax strategy

The purpose of the economists appearing at these meetings was clear: plant a seed, in the hope slowly the arguments would be copied by other economists. Savarese wrote

Daniel P. Williamson attended the Western Economic Association meeting in 1990 as discussant and was paid for his expenses.  A choice the industry probably regretted, as Williamson must not have understood why he was there and criticized the output of the other economists.

Needless to say he does not reappear in the LTDL...