This study analyses the relationship between education and smoking behavior. Our empirical models were estimated using data for Brazilian citizens from the 2008 Special Survey on Tobacco Addiction. We estimated probit, sample-selection, and zero-inflated negative binomial models. Empirical analyses for women and men were conducted separately. We found that higher education levels are associated with lower smoking probability and lower daily consumption intensity.

The aim of this study is to investigate the hypothesis that smoking reduces earnings. We use data from the Special Survey on Tobacco Addiction, which was jointly carried out with the 2008 Brazilian National Household Sample Survey. Our results support the hypothesis that smoking reduces wages. Furthermore, we found that about two-thirds of wage differential between male smokers and non-smokers is due to observable characteristics.