Self-control and support for anti-smoking policies among smokers, ex smokers, and never smokers

Amador, Lourdes Badillo; Nicolás, Ángel López

doi:10.1007/s10198-011-0356-5

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Kan () finds evidence in Taiwanese data that smokers who want to quit express more support for higher tobacco taxes and smoking bans in public places or at work. Badillo Amador and López Nicolás () find similar results in Spanish data.…”

Section: Empirical Methodssupporting

confidence: 61%

Anti‐Smoking Policies and Smoker Well‐Being: Evidence from Britain

Leicester

Levell

2015

Fiscal Studies

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Anti-smoking policies can in theory make smokers better off, by helping smokers with time-inconsistent preferences commit to giving up or reducing the amount they smoke. We use almost 20 years of British individual-level panel data to explore the impact on self-reported psychological well-being of two policy interventions: large increases in tobacco excise taxes and bans on smoking in public places. We use a difference-in-differences approach to compare the effects on well-being for likely smokers and non-smokers. We find robust evidence that increases in tobacco taxes raise the relative well-being of likely smokers. Exploiting regional variation in the timing of the smoking ban across Britain, we find no evidence that it raised smoker well-being. Our * Submitted August 2014. Anti-smoking policies and smoker well-being 225 findings give some support to the view that tobacco taxes are at least partly justifiable because of the benefits they have for smokers themselves. Policy pointsr Theories of time-inconsistent behaviour imply that smokers with selfcontrol problems may benefit from policies that increase the cost of smoking. This is because such measures can help smokers achieve their goals of cutting down or quitting.r We find evidence in a British panel covering the years 1991-2008 that the subjective well-being of likely smokers increases more than that of people less likely to smoke when tobacco taxes increase. While the sizes of the estimated effects are modest, they are indicative of self-control problems among smokers. We do not find similar effects for a smoking ban.r These results suggest an additional justification for tobacco taxation: such taxes correct not only for costs that smokers impose on others but also for costs that smokers with self-control problems impose on themselves.r If poorer smokers suffered from greater self-control problems, then it would suggest that the costs and benefits of tobacco taxation are more progressive than a standard analysis would suggest. However, we do not find evidence that smokers with low education (and hence lower lifetime income) suffer from greater self-control problems.

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Section: Empirical Methodssupporting

confidence: 61%

Anti‐Smoking Policies and Smoker Well‐Being: Evidence from Britain

Leicester

Levell

2015

Fiscal Studies

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“…Further studies are needed to precisely identify how self-control interacts with specific attributes of national tobacco control policy ( Amador and Nicolás, 2013 , Hersch, 2005 ). Embedding self-control measures into experimental or quasi-experimental studies will shed new light on heterogeneity in the price sensitivity of smoking and the reaction of smokers to environmental restrictions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-control, future orientation, smoking, and the impact of Dutch tobacco control measures

Daly

Delaney

Baumeister

2015

Addictive Behaviors Reports

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IntroductionThe pronounced discrepancy between smokers' intentions to quit and their smoking behavior has led researchers to suggest that many smokers are time inconsistent, have self-control problems, and may benefit from external efforts to constrain their consumption. This study aims to test whether self-control and future orientation predict smoking levels and to identify if these traits modify how cigarette consumption responds to the introduction of tobacco control measures.MethodsA sample of Dutch adults (N = 1585) completed a measure of self-control and the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale (CFCS) in 2001 and indicated their tobacco consumption each year from 2001 to 2007. In 2004, a workplace smoking ban and substantial tax increase on tobacco was introduced in the Netherlands. To identify the potential impact of these tobacco control measures we examined whether participants smoked or were heavy smokers (20 + cigarettes per day) each year from 2001 to 2007.ResultsParticipants with high self-control and CFCS scores showed lower rates of smoking across the seven year period of the study. The 2004 smoking restrictions were linked with a subsequent decline in heavy smoking. This decline was moderated by self-control levels. Those with low self-control showed a large reduction in heavy smoking whereas those with high self-control did not. The effects were, however, temporary: many people with low self-control resumed heavy smoking 2–3 years after the introduction of the tobacco restrictions.ConclusionsThe immediate costs which national tobacco control measures impose on smokers may assist smokers with poor self-control in reducing their cigarette consumption.

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“…In this framework it is possible that the lifetime optimal choice would be not to smoke but the limited foresight optimal choice is to smoke. They show that if the foresight horizon 5 It is also possible that people may misperceive the health risks of smoking which would cause them to come to regret their decisions as and when their information changed. Sloan and Platt (2011), though, suggest that if anything young people tend to overestimate the risk of health harms from smoking.…”

Section: Bans On Smoking In Public Placesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anti-smoking policies and smoker well-being: evidence from Britain.

Leicester

Levell

2013

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Anti-smoking policies can in theory make smokers better o, by helping smokers with time-inconsistent preferences commit to giving up or reducing the amount they smoke. We use almost 20 years of British individual-level panel data to explore the impact on self-reported psychological well-being of two policy interventions: large real-terms increases in tobacco excise taxes and bans on smoking in public places.We use a dierence-in-dierences approach to compare the eects on well-being for smokers and nonsmokers. Smoking behaviour is likely to be inuenced by policy interventions, leading to a selection problem if outcomes are compared across current smokers and non-smokers. We consider dierent ways of grouping individuals into`treatment'and`control' groups based on demographic characteristics and observed smoking histories. We nd fairly robust evidence that increases in tobacco taxes raise the relative well-being of likely smokers. Exploiting regional variation in the timing of the smoking ban across British regions, we also nd some evidence that it raised smoker well-being, though the eect is not robust to the measure of well-being. The economic signicance of the eects also appears to be quite modest. Our ndings therefore give cautious support to the view that such interventions are at least partly justiable because of the benets they have for smokers themselves.JEL: D03, D12, H23, H31

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Self-control and support for anti-smoking policies among smokers, ex smokers, and never smokers

Cited by 7 publications

References 15 publications

Anti‐Smoking Policies and Smoker Well‐Being: Evidence from Britain

Anti‐Smoking Policies and Smoker Well‐Being: Evidence from Britain

Self-control, future orientation, smoking, and the impact of Dutch tobacco control measures

Anti-smoking policies and smoker well-being: evidence from Britain.

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