Is smoking behavior culturally determined? Evidence from British immigrants

Rebekka Christopoulou and Dean R. Lillard

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2015, vol. 110, issue C, 78-90

Abstract: We exploit migration patterns from the UK to Australia and the US to investigate whether a person's decision to smoke is determined by culture. For each country, we use retrospective data to describe individual smoking trajectories over the life-course. For the UK, we use these trajectories to measure culture by cohort and cohort-age, and more accurately relative to the extant literature. Our proxy predicts smoking participation of second-generation British immigrants but not that of non-British immigrants and natives. Researchers can apply our strategy to estimate culture effects on other outcomes when retrospective or longitudinal data are available.

Keywords: Culture; Immigrant health; Smoking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 J15 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Is Smoking Behavior Culturally Determined?: Evidence from British Immigrants (2013)
Working Paper: Is Smoking Behavior Culturally Determined? Evidence from British Immigrants (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:110:y:2015:i:c:p:78-90

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2014.12.014

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