IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v306y2022ics0277953622004658.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Men smoke less under the COVID-19 closure policies: The role of altruism

Author

Listed:
  • Cai, Weicheng
  • Zhou, Yi

Abstract

This study examines whether people smoked more under the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) closure policies which trapped them at home with their families. In such circumstances, the pleasure from smoking could be more tempting than usual, but at the same time smokers’ families are more likely to be victims of passive smoking. This study uses temporal and regional variations in policy strengths with data from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker project (OxCGRT) to examine the impact of COVID-19 closure policies on smoking behaviors. With longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2018 and 2020, we find diminished smoking behaviors among Chinese male adults when the government implemented strict public health policies for the COVID-19 pandemic. People with more conscientiousness personality traits or stronger pro-family attitudes tend to smoke less as policy stringency increases.

Suggested Citation

  • Cai, Weicheng & Zhou, Yi, 2022. "Men smoke less under the COVID-19 closure policies: The role of altruism," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 306(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:306:y:2022:i:c:s0277953622004658
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115159
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953622004658
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115159?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Hale & Noam Angrist & Rafael Goldszmidt & Beatriz Kira & Anna Petherick & Toby Phillips & Samuel Webster & Emily Cameron-Blake & Laura Hallas & Saptarshi Majumdar & Helen Tatlow, 2021. "A global panel database of pandemic policies (Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker)," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(4), pages 529-538, April.
    2. De Neve, Jan-Walter & Fink, Günther, 2018. "Children’s education and parental old age survival – Quasi-experimental evidence on the intergenerational effects of human capital investment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 76-89.
    3. Staneva, Anita & Carmignani, Fabrizio & Rohde, Nicholas, 2022. "Personality, gender, and age resilience to the mental health effects of COVID-19," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    4. Ernesto Dal Bó & Frederico Finan & Martín A. Rossi, 2013. "Strengthening State Capabilities: The Role of Financial Incentives in the Call to Public Service," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(3), pages 1169-1218.
    5. World Health Organization, 2019. "WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic 2019: Offer help to quit tobacco use," University of California at San Francisco, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education qt1g16k8b9, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, UC San Francisco.
    6. Anger, Silke & Kvasnicka, Michael & Siedler, Thomas, 2011. "One Last Puff? Public Smoking Bans and Smoking Behavior," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 30(3), pages 591-601.
    7. Yael Bar-Zeev & Michal Shauly & Hannah Lee & Yehuda Neumark, 2021. "Changes in Smoking Behaviour and Home-Smoking Rules during the Initial COVID-19 Lockdown Period in Israel," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-12, February.
    8. Becker, Gary S, 1981. "Altruism in the Family and Selfishness in the Market Place," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 48(189), pages 1-15, February.
    9. Jain, Radhika & Dupas, Pascaline, 2022. "The effects of India's COVID-19 lockdown on critical non-COVID health care and outcomes: Evidence from dialysis patients," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    10. Bharadwaj, Prashant & Johnsen, Julian V. & Løken, Katrine V., 2014. "Smoking bans, maternal smoking and birth outcomes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 72-93.
    11. Jérôme Adda & Francesca Cornaglia, 2010. "The Effect of Bans and Taxes on Passive Smoking," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(1), pages 1-32, January.
    12. Ma, Mingming, 2019. "Does children's education matter for parents’ health and cognition? Evidence from China," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 222-240.
    13. Jinlei Qi & Dandan Zhang & Xiang Zhang & Tanakao Takana & Yuhang Pan & Peng Yin & Jiangmei Liu & Shuocen Liu & George F. Gao & Guojun He & Maigeng Zhou, 2022. "Short- and medium-term impacts of strict anti-contagion policies on non-COVID-19 mortality in China," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 55-63, January.
    14. Peterson, D.E. & Zeger, S.L. & Remington, P.L. & Anderson, H.A., 1992. "The effect of state cigarette tax increases on cigarette sales, 1955 to 1988," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 82(1), pages 94-96.
    15. Ernst Fehr & Urs Fischbacher, 2003. "The nature of human altruism," Nature, Nature, vol. 425(6960), pages 785-791, October.
    16. Becker, Gary S & Murphy, Kevin M, 1988. "The Family and the State," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(1), pages 1-18, April.
    17. Koo, Linda C. & Ho, John H-C. & Rylander, Ragnar, 1988. "Life-history correlates of environmental tobacco smoke: A study on nonsmoking Hong Kong Chinese wives with smoking versus nonsmoking husbands," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 26(7), pages 751-760, January.
    18. Arendt, Jacob Nielsen & Christensen, Mads Lybech & Hjorth-Trolle, Anders, 2021. "Maternal education and child health: Causal evidence from Denmark," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    19. Toffolutti, Veronica & Plach, Samuel & Maksimovic, Teodora & Piccitto, Giorgio & Mascherini, Massimiliano & Mencarini, Letizia & Aassve, Arnstein, 2022. "The association between COVID-19 policy responses and mental well-being: Evidence from 28 European countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    20. Eugenio Proto & Aldo Rustichini & Andis Sofianos, 2019. "Intelligence, Personality, and Gains from Cooperation in Repeated Interactions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(3), pages 1351-1390.
    21. Katherine Donato & Grant Miller & Manoj Mohanan & Yulya Truskinovsky & Marcos Vera-Hernández, 2017. "Personality Traits and Performance Contracts: Evidence from a Field Experiment among Maternity Care Providers in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 506-510, May.
    22. O'Donnell, James & Cárdenas, Diana & Orazani, Nima & Evans, Ann & Reynolds, Katherine J., 2022. "The longitudinal effect of COVID-19 infections and lockdown on mental health and the protective effect of neighbourhood social relations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 297(C).
    23. Matthew C. Farrelly & William N. Evans & Edward Montgomery, 1999. "Do Workplace Smoking Bans Reduce Smoking?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(4), pages 728-747, September.
    24. Cho, Hong-Jun & Khang, Young-Ho & Jun, Hee-Jin & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2008. "Marital status and smoking in Korea: The influence of gender and age," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 609-619, February.
    25. Johnston, Vanessa & Thomas, David P., 2008. "Smoking behaviours in a remote Australian Indigenous community: The influence of family and other factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(11), pages 1708-1716, December.
    26. Jérôme Adda & Francesca Cornaglia, 2010. "Passive smoking: the effect of bans and taxes," CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance 315, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    27. Dunbar, Michael S. & Nicosia, Nancy & Kilmer, Beau, 2021. "Exposure to new smoking environments and individual-level cigarette smoking behavior: Insights from exogenous assignment of military personnel," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    28. Sachser, Cedric & Olaru, Gabriel & Pfeiffer, Elisa & Brähler, Elmar & Clemens, Vera & Rassenhofer, Miriam & Witt, Andreas & Fegert, Jörg M., 2021. "The immediate impact of lockdown measures on mental health and couples’ relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic - results of a representative population survey in Germany," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sara, Raisa, 2023. "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on alcohol and tobacco consumption: Evidence from Peru," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 325(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leah K. Lakdawala & David Simon, 2017. "The Intergenerational Consequences of Tobacco Policy: A Review of Policy's Influence on Maternal Smoking and Child Health," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(1), pages 229-274, July.
    2. Otálvaro, Susana & Gallego, Juan Miguel & Rodríguez-Lesmes, Paul, 2023. "De-normalizing smoking in urban areas: Public smoking bans and smoking prevalence," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    3. Sameem, Sediq, 2020. "Are U.S. lung cancer mortality rates converging?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 190-197.
    4. Bharadwaj, Prashant & Johnsen, Julian V. & Løken, Katrine V., 2014. "Smoking bans, maternal smoking and birth outcomes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 72-93.
    5. Cornelia Chadi, 2022. "Smoking Bans, Leisure Time and Subjective Well-being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(8), pages 3765-3797, December.
    6. Jia Gao & Reagan A. Baughman, 2017. "Do Smoking Bans Improve Infant Health? Evidence from U.S. Births: 1995–2009," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 43(3), pages 472-495, June.
    7. Michael Kvasnicka & Thomas Siedler & Nicolas R. Ziebarth, 2018. "The health effects of smoking bans: Evidence from German hospitalization data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(11), pages 1738-1753, November.
    8. Fabrizio Mazzonna & Paola Salari, 2018. "Can a smoking ban save your heart?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(10), pages 1435-1449, October.
    9. Hajdu, Tamás & Hajdu, Gábor, 2018. "Smoking ban and health at birth: Evidence from Hungary," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 37-47.
    10. Buonanno, Paolo & Ranzani, Marco, 2013. "Thank you for not smoking: Evidence from the Italian smoking ban," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 192-199.
    11. Andrew M. Jones & Audrey Laporte & Nigel Rice & Eugenio Zucchelli, 2015. "Do Public Smoking Bans have an Impact on Active Smoking? Evidence from the UK," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(2), pages 175-192, February.
    12. Erik Nesson, 2012. "The Distributional Effects of Tobacco Control Policies On Adult Smoking Behavior," Working Papers 201207, Ball State University, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2012.
    13. Sen Zeng & Haruko Noguchi & Satoru Shimokawa, 2019. "Partial Smoking Ban and Secondhand Smoke Exposure in Japan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-13, August.
    14. Tamas Hajdu & Gabor Hajdu, 2017. "Smoking Ban and Health at Birth," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 1706, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    15. Aline Bütikofer & René Karadakic & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2021. "Income Inequality and Mortality: A Norwegian Perspective," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(1), pages 193-221, March.
    16. Esteban Petruzzello, 2019. "Measuring the Effect of Policy on the Demand for Menthol Cigarettes: Evidence from Household-Level Purchase Data," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 45(3), pages 422-445, June.
    17. Daniel Kuehnle & Christoph Wunder, 2017. "The Effects of Smoking Bans on Self‐Assessed Health: Evidence from Germany," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 321-337, March.
    18. Christian Bünnings, 2017. "Does new health information affect health behaviour? The effect of health events on smoking cessation," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(10), pages 987-1000, February.
    19. Clément de Chaisemartin & Pierre‐Yves Geoffard & Anne‐Laurence le Faou, 2011. "Workplace smoking ban effects on unhappy smokers," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(9), pages 1043-1055, September.
    20. Nguyen, Hai V., 2013. "Do smoke-free car laws work? Evidence from a quasi-experiment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 138-148.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:306:y:2022:i:c:s0277953622004658. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.