Anti‐Smoking Policies and Smoker Well‐Being: Evidence from Britain |
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Authors: | Andrew Leicester Peter Levell |
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Institution: | 1. Frontier Economics – work carried out while at the Institute for Fiscal Studies;2. Institute for Fiscal StudiesUniversity College London |
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Abstract: | Anti‐smoking policies can in theory make smokers better off, by helping smokers with time‐inconsistent preferences commit to giving up or reducing the amount they smoke. We use almost 20 years of British individual‐level panel data to explore the impact on self‐reported psychological well‐being of two policy interventions: large increases in tobacco excise taxes and bans on smoking in public places. We use a difference‐in‐differences approach to compare the effects on well‐being for likely smokers and non‐smokers. We find robust evidence that increases in tobacco taxes raise the relative well‐being of likely smokers. Exploiting regional variation in the timing of the smoking ban across Britain, we find no evidence that it raised smoker well‐being. Our findings give some support to the view that tobacco taxes are at least partly justifiable because of the benefits they have for smokers themselves. |
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Keywords: | smoking taxation happiness well‐being time inconsistency commitment D03 D12 H23 H31 |
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