The Impact of Prices and Control Policies on Cigarette Smoking among College Students

Smoking among youths and young adults has been rising throughout the 1990’s. Numerous policies have been enacted to try to reverse this trend. However, little is known about the impact that these policies have on the smoking behavior of young adults. This study uses a dichotomous indicator of daily smoking participation in the past thirty days, an ordered measure representing the frequency of cigarette consumption and a quasi-continuous measure of the number of cigarettes smoked per day on average to examine the impact of cigarette prices, clean indoor air laws and campus level smoking policies on the smoking behaviors of a 1997 cross section of college students. The results of the analysis indicate that higher cigarette prices are associated with lower smoking participation and lower levels of use among college student smokers. Local and state level clean indoor air restrictions have a cumulative impact on the level of smoking by current smokers. Complete smoking bans on college campuses are associated with lower levels of smoking among current smokers but have no significant impact on smoking participation. Bans on cigarette advertising on campus as well as bans on the sale of cigarettes on campus have no significant effect on the smoking behavior of college student smoking behavior.