These results may also indicate that price rises have a more immediate impact on people taking up smoking. Policies will also have an impact on passive smoking. For example, the ban to smoke in public places is likely to reduce the exposure of non-smokers to harmful tobacco smoke. In fact, numerous evaluations have linked the ban to smoke in public places with a reduction in heart-attack admissions among non-smokers and smokers alike (Pell et al., It is not straight forward to predict how individuals respond in terms of their risky behaviours when faced with loss of income or greater financial stress. Increased stress may arise due to greater employment uncertainty which, in turn, induces depression or anxiety which, in turn, may invoke some people to engage in more risky behaviours.