Är konsumtion alltid rationell? -med rökning som exempel

Sammanfattning: The microeconomic literature has for a long time asserted that homos economicus act ration-ally i.e. the choices she makes in life are based upon the fact that she always seeks to maxim-ize her own welfare. By the available information she is capable of calculating which alterna-tive of consumption possibilities that gives her the highest utility subject to its costs and hence, she always makes optimal choices. The assumption is foundation for most economic models on consumption and these models are in turn used as bases for political decisions. Research and empirical facts show however that not all types of consumption follow this ra-tional pattern, which may have implications for political decision making. By introducing modern behavioral economic theory I aim to show the importance of new theory as an alterna-tive to the traditional in the cases where it fails to explain certain consumption behaviors. The analysis is applied to a framework of addictive goods and cigarette consumption in particular, where the behavioral approach proves inconsistency. This fact changes the results of incidence analysis on excise taxes on cigarettes and has in fact quite different implications for political decision making than do the rational approach.