Does smoking have a causal effect on weight reduction?

Zhuo Chen, Steven Yen () and David Eastwood ()

Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 2007, vol. 28, issue 1, 49-67

Abstract: This study examines the relationship between smoking and body mass index (BMI) with a simultaneous equations system allowing for censoring and endogeneity of the number of cigarettes smoked, which alleviates simultaneity bias caused by unobserved heterogeneity and expansion bias by censoring in the regressor. The results suggest smoking may not have a strong long-term causal effect on body weight after controlling for the endogeneity. The negative relationship between smoking and BMI reported in the literature is potentially attributable to the aforementioned biases and should be interpreted with caution. The statistical procedure developed can be useful in other applications with a censored endogenous regressor. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007

Keywords: Body mass index; Censored regressor; Overweight; Simultaneous equations system; Smoking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1007/s10834-006-9045-4

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