U-M’s CLOSUP studies smoke-free impact, plans for more studies

Smoking, or the lack there of, in restaurants and bars doesn’t make or break a business in Michigan, according to the latest study from the University of Michigan.The study was conducted by the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy at the U-M Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. It showed smoking bans have not negatively affected revenues of restaurants or bars. However, the impact is less clear at casinos. “These studies didn’t show negative impacts on businesses,” says Tamara Wilder, post doctoral research fellow at the Ford School of Public Policy. “Some actually showed positive impacts.”The study researched how other states’ revenues were affected by the smoke-free legislation. Such legislation is currently being debated and passed in different forms in the state Legislature. Currently the state House has passed a ban with the exception of casinos and cigar bars. The state Senate passed an all encompassing ban last year.The center plans to release other studies on business taxes, transportation funding, corrections expenditures, economic development and college scholarships, and the individual health insurance market later this summer. The idea is focus on issues that will come to a boil in 2009-10.”We tried to come up with things that were very timely,” Wilder says.Source: Tamara Wilder, post doctoral research fellow at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of MichiganWriter: Jon Zemke