The Evolution of Considerate Smoking Behavior

Karine Nyborg and Mari Rege

Discussion Papers from Statistics Norway, Research Department

Abstract: This paper studies the formation of social norms for considerate smoking behavior. Being considerate gives smokers a higher social approval from non-smokers, but imposes an inconvenience cost. A non-smoker's disapproval of inconsiderate smoking is assumed to be stronger the less used he is to being exposed to passive smoking. The analysis shows that introduction of a smoking regulation may move the society from an initial no-consideration Nash equilibrium to a Nash equilibrium in which every smoker is considerate, even in the unregulated zone. This crowding in of considerate behavior will prevail even after policy reversal. Empirical evidence confirms that a shift in social norms on considerate smoking has taken place in Norway after the smoking law amendments in 1988, and supports the plausibility of model assumptions.

Keywords: Passive smoking; regulation; social norms; evolutionary game theory. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 D11 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000-07
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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