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Does Cigarette Smoking Affect Body Weight? Causal Estimates from the Clean Indoor Air Law Discontinuity

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  • L. Pieroni
  • L. Salmasi

Abstract

type="main" xml:id="ecca12136-abs-0001"> This paper examines the causal effect of smoking on body weight in Italy. We take advantage of the discontinuity in smoking habits introduced by the Italian smoking ban in 2005. Our estimates indicate that the ban reduced smoking intensity by half a cigarette per day and smoking participation rate by 2 percentage points. We estimate a significant effect on body weight of about 1 kg. Heterogeneous effects are also found, highlighting a smaller impact on men, employees and overweight and obese people. Most of the weight variations are attributed to quitting smoking, whereas reductions in cigarette consumption are not significant.

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  • L. Pieroni & L. Salmasi, 2015. "Does Cigarette Smoking Affect Body Weight? Causal Estimates from the Clean Indoor Air Law Discontinuity," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82(328), pages 671-704, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:econom:v:82:y:2015:i:328:p:671-704
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    Cited by:

    1. Celidoni, Martina & Pieroni, Luca & Salmasi, Luca, 2014. "Side-effects of anti-smoking policies on health behaviors. Evidence from the US," MPRA Paper 58312, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Costa-Font, Joan & Salmasi, Luca & Zaccagni, Sarah, 2021. "More Than a Ban on Smoking? Behavioural Spillovers of Smoking Bans in the Workplace," IZA Discussion Papers 14299, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Giorgio d’Agostino & Margherita Scarlato & Silvia Napolitano, 2018. "Do Cash Transfers Promote Food Security? The Case of the South African Child Support Grant," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 27(4), pages 430-456.
    4. Pieroni, Luca & Salmasi, Luca, 2012. "Smoking habit changes and body weight: causal estimates from the British Household Panel Survey," MPRA Paper 43465, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Margherita Scarlato & Giorgio D'Agostino, 2016. "Gender Disparities In The South African Labour Market: The Impact Of The Child Support Grant," Departmental Working Papers of Economics - University 'Roma Tre' 0210, Department of Economics - University Roma Tre.
    6. Luca Pieroni & Giacomo Muzi & Augusto Quercia & Donatella Lanari & Carmen Rundo & Liliana Minelli & Luca Salmasi & Marco Dell'Omo, 2015. "Estimating the Smoking Ban Effects on Smoking Prevalence, Quitting and Cigarette Consumption in a Population Study of Apprentices in Italy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-13, August.
    7. Callison, Kevin & Schiman, Cuiping & Schiman, Jeffrey C., 2021. "Smoking cessation and weight gain: Evidence from China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    8. Martina Celidoni & Luca Pieroni & Luca Salmasi, 2020. "Further Evidence on the Effect of Clean Indoor Air Laws on Smoking: The Italian Case," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(3), pages 1110-1132, January.
    9. d'Agostino, Giorgio & Scarlato, Margherita, 2016. "Gender Inequality in the South African Labour Market: the Impact of the Child Support Grant," MPRA Paper 72523, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Pieroni, Luca & Salmasi, Luca, 2016. "The effect of smoking habit changes on body weight: Evidence from the UK," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 1-13.

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    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

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