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“One of the conclusions of the article is that the price paid at tobacco for each pack of snuff is just a small part of the real price smokers pay for their consumption,” he told SINC Ángel López Nicolás, coauthor of the study published by the Spanish Journal of Public Health and researcher UPCT.

“Since the consumption of snuff increases the risk of death compared to nonsmokers, you can assign a cost to the risk of premature death from those who do smoke,” says the researcher.

So, the study said today the average cost of a pack is 3-4 euros, but 107 euros for male smokers and 75 euros for women smokers.

The paper questions the axiom of classical economics on ‘consumer sovereignty’, this means that those who smoke do not do it because the pleasure of smoking is greater than its cost, but the addictiveness of nicotine and ignorance of their actual cost.

To determine the cost of death associated with consumption of snuff in Spain, the experts left the so-called Value of Statistical Life (VSL), ie the amount you are willing to pay people to achieve a reduction in risk of death. VSV average is estimated as 2.91 million euros. “In the case of smokers is 3.78 million euros,” explains López Nicolás.

“But do not confuse the cost of premature mortality with health care cost. The cost of premature mortality is borne by smokers, “says Lopez.

The team also handled the information on active employees Panel Household Panel (ECHP) for the period 1996-2001 and the results of the Survey of Occupational Accidents, Ministry of Labour and Immigration.

Know the costs helps to prevent smoking

“The estimated cost of premature death snuff package is a key element in the cost-effectiveness of prevention policies and tobacco control,” say the researchers.

In this sense, the study shows that both taxes and restrictions on consumption in public places self-reinforcing mechanisms of whom smoke. According to the study, “the politics of tobacco prevention and control can generate substantial benefits because the welfare losses associated with use of snuff are much more substantial than suggested by the external costs.”

“Despite the entry into force in 2006 of the law of health measures against smoking in Spain can continue to make progress on measures to control the consumption of snuff, experts conclude.

The three students of unemployment and labor market inefficiencies Pedro A. Diamond, Dale T. Mortensen and Christopher A. Pissarides receive this December, the Nobel Prize for Economics 2010 “for his analysis of markets with frictions in the process of search” that explores the balance between supply and demand for labor. This theory also applies to issues related to monetary theory, public economics, financial, regional and family.

The model Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides (or DMP) is currently the most used tool for analyzing the unemployment and may explain why they can live high unemployment with many unfilled vacancies and unemployment can affect how certain economic policies. This model takes into account elements or ‘market frictions’ as real wages, interest rates, firing costs, the average length of unemployment or the number of jobs available.

“The winning model helps us understand the ways in which affected unemployment, job and wage regulation and economic policy. This can refer to the levels of benefits or unemployment insurance rules on hiring and firing, “said the statement from the Swedish Academy which awards the Nobel.

MIT professor analyzed the market bases of Mortensen and Pissarides search and theory developed and applied to labor markets. Diamond explained how companies and buyers and sellers unemployed or experiencing problems contact. The ‘search engines’ need time and resources making it possible for matching supply and demand, but also that they do so inefficient or simply fail to mate.

Diamond was proposed by Barack Obama, U.S. President-to be a member of the Federal Reserve Board, however, his appointment has been delayed after some Republican senators questioned at the time your professional value.

Generous benefits increase unemployment

One conclusion of this theory is that more generous unemployment benefits lead to higher unemployment and unemployment periods longer search.

In regard to regulating the hiring and firing, the new Nobel economics believe that bureaucratic hurdles are more harmful for employment severance costs and also maintain the minimum wage may increase while the level employment and social welfare.

The Prize is 10 million Swedish kronor (1.08 million euros), to be divided equally among the three winners.

This award was created in 1968 and is not part of the original Nobel prizes. Officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist, inventor of dynamite.

The global report outlines a new vision of cultural diversity centered in the dynamic nature and the need to combat the spread of cultural illiteracy, driven by the acceleration of social change.

The industries of media and information and culture more than 7% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provide income totaling approximately $ 1.3 billion, ie twice the revenue generated by international tourism, which amounted to approximately 680,000 million dollars.

Now, in countries such as Africa’s participation in the global market culture is still very marginal, less than 1% of exports. The report stresses that to improve this situation is urgent to invest in cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue.

“Culture is the most overlooked of the Millennium Development Goals,” lamented the director general of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura, adding “in a world like today, subject to all sorts of cultural changes, it is urgent to accompany changes and ensure they do not generate more vulnerability for those who are badly prepared to tackle them. ”

Exports of cultural and media products in developing countries increased sharply in the period 1996-2005, from 51,000 to 274,000 million dollars. The craft sector and tourism in Morocco, for example, represent over 25% of GDP.

Recommendations of the report obtained

The report makes ten recommendations on how to invest in cultural diversity. The text states that “cultural diversity is not only related to the protection of endangered heritage or the search for an antidote to ‘isolationism’, but also a means to reduce the imbalances in global trade creation “.

The text proposes, among other things, the creation of “a Global Observatory for the impact of globalization on cultural diversity, the establishment of” a national mechanism for monitoring public policy issues related cultural diversity “and application of “national language policies to safeguard linguistic diversity and promotion of multilingualism at a time.”

It is estimated that the world today speak between 6,000 and 8,000 languages, half of the surveyed languages are spoken language communities with fewer than 10,000 people.

It also proposes the adoption of new strategies to promote intercultural dialogue, improve the relevance of educational content, counter the spread of stereotypes in the media and information and facilitate the exchange of artistic production and circulation of artists .

The report is aimed at academia and the general public and aims to become a benchmark in the field of cultural diversity.