Artikel

The earning losses of smokers

Using within-family variation from twins and siblings, I find that smokers earn approximately 16% less than nonsmokers. Possible explanations for this earning difference are addiction-related productivity declines and earning reductions from higher health insurance costs. To investigate further, I use variation in the provision of employer-supplied health insurance (ESHI) to examine the mechanism of whether the addiction or insurance component has a larger influence on earnings. While I generally observe a larger earning penalty for smokers with ESHI than smokers without ESHI, the earning difference is statistically indistinguishable from zero.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Journal: IZA Journal of Labor Economics ; ISSN: 2193-8997 ; Volume: 9 ; Year: 2020 ; Issue: 1 ; Pages: 1-21 ; Warsaw: Sciendo

Classification
Wirtschaft
Health Behavior
Health Insurance, Public and Private
Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
Subject
twins
compensating differentials
smoking
incidence of smoking
employer-supplied health insurance

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Bhai, Moiz
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Sciendo
(where)
Warsaw
(when)
2020

DOI
doi:10.2478/izajole-2020-0001
Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Artikel

Associated

  • Bhai, Moiz
  • Sciendo

Time of origin

  • 2020

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