Does Early Life Exposure to Cigarette Smoke Permanently Harm Childhood Welfare? Evidence from Cigarette Tax Hikes

David Simon

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2016, vol. 8, issue 4, 128-59

Abstract: Evidence suggests that excise taxes on tobacco improve fetal health. However, it remains unknown if smoke exposure in early life causes lasting harm to children. I find that in utero exposure to a dollar increase in the state cigarette tax causes a 10 percent decrease in sick days from school and a 4.7 percent decrease in having two or more doctor visits. I present additional evidence for decreases in hospitalizations and asthma. This supports the hypothesis that exposure to cigarette smoke in utero and infancy carries significant medium-term costs, and that excise taxes can lead to lasting intergenerational improvements in well-being.

JEL-codes: H25 H71 I12 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
Note: DOI: 10.1257/app.20150476
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (47)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20150476 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... VowyJFYoOA_n7XdtrWzg (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... lPzP30Ix4kQSmJbKSyu0 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... OTom4S5OW_oSSiijPJaQ (application/zip)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:8:y:2016:i:4:p:128-59

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics is currently edited by Alexandre Mas

More articles in American Economic Journal: Applied Economics from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().