IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bel/wpaper/19.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Smoking and Obesity Revisited: Evidence from Belarus

Author

Listed:
  • Aliaksandr Amialchuk
  • Kateryna Bornukova

    () (Belarusian Economic Research and Outreach Center (BEROC))

  • Mir M. Ali

Abstract

It has been hypothesized that the rising obesity rates in many countries are an unintended consequence of anti-smoking policies. However, evidence of a causal effect of smoking on body weight is mixed. Using a large nationally representative survey from Belarus, we estimate the effect of the number of cigarettes smoked per day on individuals’ body mass index (BMI) and on the probability of being overweight and obese. We instrument smoking variable using cigarette prices and group-specific smoking rates. We find that smoking is negatively related to BMI, probability of overweight and obesity, and the magnitude of the estimated effects is comparable to the estimates from other countries. In addition, quantile regression analysis uncovers that the negative effect of smoking is higher at the higher percentiles of BMI distribution. Same differences in the effect are found using ordered probit regression analyses. Our results uncover a small negative effect of smoking on body size and obesity. These findings suggest that, while smoking cessation may lead to some weight gain among subjects of healthy weight and above healthy weight, the effects on obese subjects are small and should not be expected to significantly increase obesity prevalence.

Suggested Citation

  • Aliaksandr Amialchuk & Kateryna Bornukova & Mir M. Ali, 2012. "Smoking and Obesity Revisited: Evidence from Belarus," BEROC Working Paper Series 19, Belarusian Economic Research and Outreach Center (BEROC).
    • Handle: RePEc:bel:wpaper:19
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eng.beroc.by/webroot/delivery/files/WP19_eng_Bornukova.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2012
    Download Restriction: no

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mikael Bask & Maria Melkersson, 2004. "Rationally addicted to drinking and smoking?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(4), pages 373-381.
    2. Morris, Stephen, 2007. "The impact of obesity on employment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 413-433, June.
    3. Peter Arcidiacono & Holger Sieg & Frank Sloan, 2007. "Living Rationally Under The Volcano? An Empirical Analysis Of Heavy Drinking And Smoking," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 48(1), pages 37-65, February.
    4. John Cawley & Sara Markowitz & John Tauras, 2006. "Obesity, Cigarette Prices, Youth Access Laws, and Adolescent Smoking Initiation," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 32(1), pages 149-170, Winter.
    5. Joseph Henrich & Steve J. Heine & Ara Norenzayan, 2010. "The Weirdest People in the World?," Working Paper Series of the German Council for Social and Economic Data 139, German Council for Social and Economic Data (RatSWD).
    6. Erdal Tekin & Sara Markowitz, 2008. "The Relationship between Suicidal Behavior and Productive Activities of Young Adults," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 75(2), pages 300-331, October.
    7. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, January.
    8. Cawley, John & Markowitz, Sara & Tauras, John, 2004. "Lighting up and slimming down: the effects of body weight and cigarette prices on adolescent smoking initiation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 293-311, March.
    9. James Nonnemaker & Eric Finkelstein & Mark Engelen & Thomas Hoerger & Matthew Farrelly, 2009. "Have Efforts To Reduce Smoking Really Contributed To The Obesity Epidemic?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(2), pages 366-376, April.
    10. Lee, Sokbae, 2007. "Endogeneity in quantile regression models: A control function approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 1131-1158, December.
    11. Terza, Joseph V. & Basu, Anirban & Rathouz, Paul J., 2008. "Two-stage residual inclusion estimation: Addressing endogeneity in health econometric modeling," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 531-543, May.
    12. Fang, Hai & Ali, Mir M. & Rizzo, John A., 2009. "Does smoking affect body weight and obesity in China?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 334-350, December.
    13. Trogdon, Justin G. & Nonnemaker, James & Pais, Joanne, 2008. "Peer effects in adolescent overweight," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1388-1399, September.
    14. Dmitrij Kruk & Gleb Shymanovich, 2011. "Public Expenditures on Education and Health in Belarus before and during the Global Crisis," CASE Network Reports 0102, CASE-Center for Social and Economic Research.
    15. Charles L. Baum, 2009. "The effects of cigarette costs on BMI and obesity," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(1), pages 3-19.
    16. Chou, Shin-Yi & Grossman, Michael & Saffer, Henry, 2004. "An economic analysis of adult obesity: results from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 565-587, May.
    17. Sandra L. Decker & Amy Ellen Schwartz, 2000. "Cigarettes and Alcohol: Substitutes or Complements?," NBER Working Papers 7535, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Cockerham, William C. & Hinote, Brian P. & Abbott, Pamela, 2006. "Psychological distress, gender, and health lifestyles in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(9), pages 2381-2394, November.
    19. Gruber, Jonathan & Frakes, Michael, 2006. "Does falling smoking lead to rising obesity?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 183-197, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Belarus; smoking; obesity; body weight;

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bel:wpaper:19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Svetlana Yakubovskaya). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/berocby.html .

    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 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.