Smoke Signals: Adolescent Smoking and School Continuation

Philip J. Cook and Rebecca Hutchinson

A chapter in The Evolution of Consumption: Theories and Practices, 2007, pp 157-186 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Abstract: Smoking initiation by adolescents has been analyzed by economists as a choice reflecting prices, tastes, and subjective evaluation of the long-term risks of addiction and disease. What is missing from this account is the fact that smoking is a social activity and is subject to peer influence. Peers may serve as a source of information about why and how to smoke, and how to obtain cigarettes. Peers also serve as an audience, observing and evaluating others’ behavior. This evaluation is mediated by the long association in popular culture between smoking and a variety of attributes prized by adolescents. Like choice of fashion in hair and clothing, body piercing, comportment, and so forth, smoking by adolescents connotes information about identity. Knowing this, the decision of whether to smoke is partly a decision of what identity to project.

Date: 2007
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:aaeczz:s1529-2134(07)10007-7

DOI: 10.1016/S1529-2134(07)10007-7

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