Room: Phillips 307
Time: Wed 10:15 AM-11:45 AM

Smoking and Public Policy

Chair: Sean Nicholson (Cornell University)

Session Description

This session revisits the relationship between various types of tobacco control policies and smoking, especially by youth. Paper 1 resolves a long-standing discrepancy in the empirical literature on the effects of prices and taxes on youth smoking initiation. Evidence from longitudinal data shows that the probability that youth start to smoke is uncorrelated with increases in cigarette taxes. Evidence from cross-sectional data shows a strong negative relationship between taxes and the rate of smoking prevalence among youth. Paper 1 resolves the discrepancy and explains its source. Paper 2 provides a careful analysis of the effects that public policies have had on exposure to second-hand smoke. The authors use a regression discontinuity design to show that laws regulating workplace smoking changed individual exposure to smoke. Paper 3 examines whether smokers of different ages respond differently to taxes and prices. Together these papers present new evidence on the relationship between important tobacco control policies and smoking.

Key Terms None Listed

Session Organizer: Dean Lillard (Cornell University)

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Presentations

1. Smoking Initiation and the Iron Law of Demand

   Presenter: Andrew Sfekas (Temple University)

   Discussant: Christopher Carpenter (University of California, Irvine)

2. Public-Place Smoking Laws and Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) in Public Places

   Presenter: Christopher Carpenter (University of California, Irvine)

   Discussant: Dean Lillard (Cornell University)

3. Beyond Youth: Cigarette taxes and young adult smoking behavior

   Presenter: Philip DeCicca (McMaster University)

   Discussant: Jason Fletcher (Yale University)