Smoking initiation in Germany: the role of intergenerational transmission

Silja Göhlmann, Christoph Schmidt and Harald Tauchmann
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Silja Goehlmann

Health Economics, 2010, vol. 19, issue 2, 227-242

Abstract: This paper analyzes the decision to start smoking using data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel (GSOEP). Our focus is on the role that parental smoking behavior plays for children's smoking initiation. The data used are a combination of retrospective information on the age individuals started smoking and, by tracing back these individuals within the panel structure up to that point, information on characteristics at the age of smoking initiation. In contrast to the previous literature it is possible to control for the environment at the time of smoking onset that might have influenced the decision to start. Our preferred specification of a discrete time hazard model indicates that parental smoking significantly increases the offspring's hazard to start smoking. While this effect is most prominent for currently smoking parents, it is also found for parents who have given up smoking already. However, an ambiguous effect of the timing of parental smoking cessation is found, arguing against role‐model effects being a key determinant for smoking initiation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (47)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.1470

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:wly:hlthec:v:19:y:2010:i:2:p:227-242

Access Statistics for this article

Health Economics is currently edited by Alan Maynard, John Hutton and Andrew Jones

More articles in Health Economics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().