Philip J. Cook

Philip Jackson Cook (born October 15, 1946) is an American economist. He is Terry Sanford Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and Professor Emeritus of Economics at Duke University. He is best known for his research on the economics of crime, particularly gun violence.

Cook joined the Duke faculty as an assistant professor in 1973, shortly after the establishment of the university's Sanford Institute of Public Policy.

Alcohol A major area of Cook's research since the 1970s has been the study of public policy measures to curb the societal harms associated with alcohol, including alcoholism, drunk driving, and underage drinking. In a 1982 paper with George Tauchen, Cook argued for the efficacy of alcohol taxes – then an unpopular position. Using different tax rates among states as a natural experiment, they showed that increases in the tax rate on liquor were associated with a reduction in the consumption of heavy drinkers and in liver cirrhosis mortality.