The Effect of the 1998 Master Settlement on Prenatal Smoking

Douglas E. Levy and Ellen Meara

No 11176, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between the major tobacco companies and 46 states created an abrupt 45 cent (21%) increase in cigarette prices in November, 1998. Earlier estimates of the elasticity of prenatal smoking implied that the price rise would reduce prenatal cigarette smoking by 7% to 21%. Using birth records on 10 million U.S. births between January 1996 and February 2000, we examined the change in smoking during pregnancy and conditional smoking intensity in response to the MSA. Overall, adjusting for secular trends in smoking, prenatal smoking declined much less than predicted in response to the MSA.

JEL-codes: I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: EH
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Published as Levy, Douglas E. and Ellen Meara. "The Effect Of The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement On Prenatal Smoking," Journal of Health Economics, 2006, v25(2,Mar), 276-294.

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