Do Health Changes Affect Smoking? Evidence from British Panel Data

This paper uses seven waves of British Household Panel Survey data to examine the link between health developments while smoking (both one's own and those of other smokers in the same household) and future cigarette consumption. We find those whose health worsens when smoking smoke less in the future, and are more likely to quit. This correlation is consistent with both a Grossman model of health demand (where all parameters are known) and with learning about the health consequences of smoking (where there is uncertainty). There is little effect on smoking from health developments amongst other smokers in the same household. As such, impersonal information provision may have less of an effect on smoking than the delivery of personalised health information, for example through the medical profession.