IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bir/birmec/22-06.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Hidden Cost of Smoking: Rent Premia in the Housing Market

Author

Listed:
  • Cigdem Gedikli

    (Swansea University)

  • Robert Hill

    (University of Graz)

  • Oleksandr Talavera

    (University of Birmingham)

  • Okan Yilmaz

    (Swansea University)

Abstract

In this paper, we provide novel evidence on the additional costs associated with smoking. While it may not be surprising that smokers pay a rent premium, we are the first to quantify the size of this premium. Our approach is innovative in that we use text mining methods that extract implicit information on landlords' attitudes to smoking directly from Zoopla UK rental listings. Applying hedonic, matching and machine-learning methods to the text-mined data, we find a positive smoking rent premium of around 6 percent. This translates into 14.40GBP of indirect costs, in addition to 40GBP of weekly spending on cigarettes estimated for an average smoker in the UK.

Suggested Citation

  • Cigdem Gedikli & Robert Hill & Oleksandr Talavera & Okan Yilmaz, 2022. "The Hidden Cost of Smoking: Rent Premia in the Housing Market," Discussion Papers 22-06, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    • Handle: RePEc:bir:birmec:22-06
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.cal.bham.ac.uk/pdf/22-06.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Juan Palacios & Piet Eichholtz & Nils Kok & Erdal Aydin, 2021. "The impact of housing conditions on health outcomes," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1172-1200, December.
    2. van Ours, Jan C., 2002. "A pint a day raises a man's pay; but smoking blows that gain away," IZA Discussion Papers 473, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Shaun Bond & Avis Devine, 2016. "Certification Matters: Is Green Talk Cheap Talk?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 117-140, February.
    4. Adam D. Nowak & Bradley S. Price & Patrick S. Smith, 2021. "Real Estate Dictionaries Across Space and Time," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 139-163, January.
    5. Hill, Robert J. & Syed, Iqbal A., 2016. "Hedonic price–rent ratios, user cost, and departures from equilibrium in the housing market," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 60-72.
    6. Alexander Reichardt & Franz Fuerst & Nico B. Rottke & Joachim Zietz, 2012. "Sustainable Building Certification and the Rent Premium: A Panel Data Approach," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 34(1), pages 99-126.
    7. Philippe Bracke, 2015. "House Prices and Rents: Microevidence from a Matched Data Set in Central London," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 43(2), pages 403-431, June.
    8. Matthew Blackwell & Stefano Iacus & Gary King & Giuseppe Porro, 2009. "cem: Coarsened exact matching in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 9(4), pages 524-546, December.
    9. Heston, Alan & Nakamura, Alice O., 2009. "Questions about the equivalence of market rents and user costs for owner occupied housing," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 273-279, September.
    10. Kenneth Soyeh & Jonathan Wiley & Ken Johnson, 2014. "Do Buyer Incentives Work for Houses during a Real Estate Downturn?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 380-396, February.
    11. Adam D. Nowak & Patrick S. Smith, 2020. "Quality-Adjusted House Price Indexes," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 339-356, September.
    12. Alexandre Flage, 2018. "Ethnic and Gender Discrimination in Rental Housing Market, Evidence from Meta-Analysis of Correspondence Tests, 2006-2017," Working Papers 2018-04, CRESE.
    13. Adam Nowak & Patrick Smith, 2017. "Textual Analysis in Real Estate," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(4), pages 896-918, June.
    14. King, Gary & Nielsen, Richard, 2019. "Why Propensity Scores Should Not Be Used for Matching," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(4), pages 435-454, October.
    15. van Ours, Jan C., 2004. "A pint a day raises a man's pay; but smoking blows that gain away," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 863-886, September.
    16. Flage, Alexandre, 2018. "Ethnic and gender discrimination in the rental housing market: Evidence from a meta-analysis of correspondence tests, 2006–2017," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 251-273.
    17. Jerry T. Haag & Ronald C. Rutherford & Thomas A. Thomson, 2000. "Real Estate Agent Remarks: Help or Hype?," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 20(1), pages 205-215.
    18. Iacus, Stefano M. & King, Gary & Porro, Giuseppe, 2012. "Causal Inference without Balance Checking: Coarsened Exact Matching," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 1-24, January.
    19. Kimberly F. Luchtenberg & Michael J. Seiler & Hua Sun, 2019. "Listing Agent Signals: Does a Picture Paint a Thousand Words?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 617-648, November.
    20. Spenser Robinson & Andrew Sanderford, 2016. "Green Buildings: Similar to Other Premium Buildings?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 99-116, February.
    21. Phillip B. Levine & Tara A. Gustafson & Ann D. Velenchik, 1997. "More Bad News for Smokers? The Effects of Cigarette Smoking on Wages," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 50(3), pages 493-509, April.
    22. Benjamin, John D & Jud, G Donald & Winkler, Daniel T, 2001. "The Value of Smoking Prohibitions in Vacation Rental Properties," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 117-128, January.
    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. David Hearne & Erez Yerushalmi, 2025. "The Amenity Value of Bicycle Infrastructure: A Hedonic Application to Greater Manchester, UK," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 88(2), pages 425-457, February.

    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. Asproudis, Elias & Gedikli, Cigdem & Talavera, Oleksandr & Yilmaz, Okan, 2024. "Returns to solar panels in the housing market: A meta learner approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    2. Philipp vom Berge & Achim Schmillen, 2023. "Effects of mass layoffs on local employment—evidence from geo-referenced data," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(3), pages 509-539.
    3. Pierre Pestieau & Gregory Ponthiere, 2012. "Myopia, regrets, and risky behaviors," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(2), pages 288-317, April.
    4. Anger, Silke & Kvasnicka, Michael, 2006. "Biases in estimates of the smoking wage penalty," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2006-089, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    5. Lång, Elisabeth & Nystedt, Paul, 2018. "Blowing up money? The earnings penalty of smoking in the 1970s and the 21st century," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 39-52.
    6. Cowan, Benjamin W., 2011. "Forward-thinking teens: The effects of college costs on adolescent risky behavior," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 813-825, October.
    7. Ravi Bapna & Alok Gupta & Gautam Ray & Shweta Singh, 2023. "Single-Sourcing vs. Multisourcing: An Empirical Analysis of Large Information Technology Outsourcing Arrangements," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(3), pages 1109-1130, September.
    8. Kimberly F. Luchtenberg & Michael J. Seiler & Hua Sun, 2019. "Listing Agent Signals: Does a Picture Paint a Thousand Words?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 617-648, November.
    9. Eric A. BONDZIE, 2016. "Effect of Smoking and other Economic Variables on Wages in the Euro Area," Journal of Economics Bibliography, KSP Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 38-52, March.
    10. Cigdem Gedikli & Robert Hill & Oleksandr Talavera & Okan Yilmaz, 2025. "Online Real Estate Agencies and their Impact on the Housing Market," Discussion Papers 25-01, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    11. Ali Palali, 2017. "Early Smoking, Education, and Labor Market Performance," De Economist, Springer, vol. 165(3), pages 225-270, September.
    12. Clark, Andrew E. & Etile, Fabrice, 2006. "Don't give up on me baby: Spousal correlation in smoking behaviour," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 958-978, September.
    13. Vidhura Tennekoon & Robert Rosenman, 2013. "Bias in Measuring Smoking Behavior," Working Papers 2013-10, School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University.
    14. Ainhoa Herrarte & Paloma Urcelay, 2022. "The Wage Penalty for Motherhood in Spain (2009-2017): The Role of the Male Partner’s Job Characteristic," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 241(2), pages 27-57, June.
    15. Ermakov, Stepan, 2012. "The impact of smoking intensity on wages in Russia," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 25(1), pages 70-94.
    16. Bengtsson, Tommy & Nilsson, Anton, 2016. "Smoking Behaviour and Early Retirement Due to Chronic Disability," IZA Discussion Papers 9881, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Niina Leskinen & Jussi Vimpari & Seppo Junnila, 2020. "A Review of the Impact of Green Building Certification on the Cash Flows and Values of Commercial Properties," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-22, March.
    18. Renata Serra & Kelly A. Davidson, 2021. "Selling Together: The Benefits of Cooperatives to Women Honey Producers in Ethiopia," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(1), pages 202-223, February.
    19. Adam D. Nowak & Bradley S. Price & Patrick S. Smith, 2021. "Real Estate Dictionaries Across Space and Time," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 139-163, January.
    20. Paul M. Anglin & Yanmin Gao, 2023. "Value of Communication and Social Media: An Equilibrium Theory of Messaging," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 66(4), pages 861-903, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Smoking; Rental market; Hedonic regression; Matching; Text mining; Random forest; Smoking rent premium; Contracting frictions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • R21 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Housing Demand
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:bir:birmec:22-06. 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: Oleksandr Talavera (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/debhauk.html .

    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.