Business Desk :
BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University, has joined an international collaboration of economics and fiscal policy researchers focused on tobacco control policies in Bangladesh.
Research teams working on the economics of tobacco taxes in 15 other countries are also currently part of the same collaboration, led by economists from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), said a media release on Thursday.
“Tobacco consumption is a serious health hazard around the world and the health of middle-income and the poor in Bangladesh is particularly affected by it. The studies funded by UIC in Bangladesh through this collaboration will play a critical role in influencing policies to control tobacco use,” said Executive Director of BIGD Dr Sultan Hafeez Rahman.
In Bangladesh, 41.3 million adults use tobacco in some form — 44.7 percent men and 1.5 percent women smoke tobacco, according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) (2009).
The project will focus on building country-level economic evidence to inform policy makers on efforts to reduce tobacco consumption, generate new revenues that can be used for health and development efforts and save lives using fiscal policies.
Led by a team of economists from UIC, Institute for Health Research and Policy, the collaboration focuses on the economics of tobacco and functions through a web-based platform called “Tobacconomics”. Frank Chaloupka, Ph.D., of UIC heads the global team of economists.
The Bloomberg Philanthropies initiative’s main goals are to raise awareness of the harm caused by tobacco and assist low and middle-income countries to implement strong tobacco control policies and practices.
UIC is a core partner of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use.
The current group of UIC’s international partners are: the PRAKARSA and the Tax Centre at the University of Indonesia in Indonesia, Institute of Public Policy and Management (IPPM) at the National Economics University (NEU) and the Development and Policies Research Center in Vietnam, South American Network on Applied Economics/Red Sur (La Red Sudamericana de EconomiaAplicada/Red Sur) working in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Peru; the Institute of Economic Sciences working in Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia; and Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) and Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC) in Pakistan.
BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University, has joined an international collaboration of economics and fiscal policy researchers focused on tobacco control policies in Bangladesh.
Research teams working on the economics of tobacco taxes in 15 other countries are also currently part of the same collaboration, led by economists from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), said a media release on Thursday.
“Tobacco consumption is a serious health hazard around the world and the health of middle-income and the poor in Bangladesh is particularly affected by it. The studies funded by UIC in Bangladesh through this collaboration will play a critical role in influencing policies to control tobacco use,” said Executive Director of BIGD Dr Sultan Hafeez Rahman.
In Bangladesh, 41.3 million adults use tobacco in some form — 44.7 percent men and 1.5 percent women smoke tobacco, according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) (2009).
The project will focus on building country-level economic evidence to inform policy makers on efforts to reduce tobacco consumption, generate new revenues that can be used for health and development efforts and save lives using fiscal policies.
Led by a team of economists from UIC, Institute for Health Research and Policy, the collaboration focuses on the economics of tobacco and functions through a web-based platform called “Tobacconomics”. Frank Chaloupka, Ph.D., of UIC heads the global team of economists.
The Bloomberg Philanthropies initiative’s main goals are to raise awareness of the harm caused by tobacco and assist low and middle-income countries to implement strong tobacco control policies and practices.
UIC is a core partner of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use.
The current group of UIC’s international partners are: the PRAKARSA and the Tax Centre at the University of Indonesia in Indonesia, Institute of Public Policy and Management (IPPM) at the National Economics University (NEU) and the Development and Policies Research Center in Vietnam, South American Network on Applied Economics/Red Sur (La Red Sudamericana de EconomiaAplicada/Red Sur) working in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Peru; the Institute of Economic Sciences working in Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia; and Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) and Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC) in Pakistan.
