Smoking and the Business Cycle: Evidence from Germany

Arbeitspapier

In this paper, we use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel to investigate the effect on cigarette consumption of macro-economic conditions in the form of regional unemployment rates. The results from our panel data models, several of which control for selection bias, indicate that the propensity to become a smoker increases significantly during an economic downturn, with an approximately 0.7 percentage point increase for each one percentage point rise in the unemployment rate. Conversely, conditional on the individual being a smoker, cigarette consumption decreases during recessions, with a one percentage point increase in the regional unemployment rate leading to an up to 0.8 percent decrease in consumption.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 10953

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Business Fluctuations; Cycles ; Health Behavior ; Time Allocation and Labor Supply
• Subject: business cycle ; smoking ; unemployment

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Kaiser, Micha ; Reutter, Mirjam ; Sousa-Poza, Alfonso ; Strohmaier, Kristina
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2017

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/170937
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET