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Parental income and children's smoking behaviour: evidence from the British Household Panel Survey

Author

Listed:
  • Laura Blow

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University of Surrey)

  • Andrew Leicester

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies)

  • Frank Windmeijer

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University of Bristol)

Abstract

Does money matter? When investigating health behaviour, research often finds a strong positive association between income and healthy behaviour. This could however be due to individual characteristics that determine both income and health investment and is not necessarily due to the role of money per se. In this study we look at this relationship over the generations by studying the association between parental income and children's prevalence to smoke in Britain using data from the British Household Panel Survey and British Youth Survey. We find an inverse relation between parental income and children's smoking prevalence, but when looking at within household changes by comparing sibling's smoking status differences at the same age, we find instead a positive effect. This indicates that within household increases in income lead to an increased probability of smoking of a younger child.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Blow & Andrew Leicester & Frank Windmeijer, 2005. "Parental income and children's smoking behaviour: evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," IFS Working Papers W05/10, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:05/10
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    File URL: http://www.ifs.org.uk/wps/wp0510.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Ijeoma P. Edoka, 2017. "Implications of Misclassification Errors in Empirical Studies of Adolescent Smoking Behaviours," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 486-499, April.
    2. Massimiliano Bratti & Alfonso Miranda, 2010. "Non‐pecuniary returns to higher education: the effect on smoking intensity in the UK," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(8), pages 906-920, August.
    3. Edoka, I.P., 2012. "Decomposing Differences in Cotinine Distribution between Children and Adolescents from Different Socioeconomic Backgrounds," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 12/29, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    4. I. Edoka, 2011. "Parental Income and Smoking Participation in Adolescents: Implications of misclassification error in empirical studies of adolescent smoking participation," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 11/29, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    5. Sutherland, Alex, 2012. "Is parental socio-economic status related to the initiation of substance abuse by young people in an English city? An event history analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(7), pages 1053-1061.
    6. Maria L. Loureiro & Anna Sanz-de-Galdeano & Daniela Vuri, 2010. "Smoking Habits: Like Father, Like Son, Like Mother, Like Daughter?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 72(6), pages 717-743, December.

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    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

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