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Cognitive ability and teen smoking

Author

Listed:
  • Hendrik Jürges

    (University of Wuppertal)

  • Sophie-Charlotte Meyer

    (Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin)

Abstract

We use data on 11–15-year-old boys in the West Bank to study the empirical link between cognitive ability and health behavior, specifically (teen) smoking. Adjusting for both age in months and grade level allows us to effectively shut down any simultaneous effect of maturation and schooling on cognitive ability and smoking. We find that those at the lower end of the cognitive ability distribution are more than twice as likely to smoke than those at the upper end (approximately 25 versus 10%) also after adjusting for parental background and peer composition in a generalized propensity score approach. Further, we find that the cognitive ability-smoking gradient is fairly flat at the lower end of the cognitive ability distribution and steep at the upper end.

Suggested Citation

  • Hendrik Jürges & Sophie-Charlotte Meyer, 2020. "Cognitive ability and teen smoking," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 21(2), pages 287-296, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eujhec:v:21:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s10198-019-01127-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10198-019-01127-1
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