The Intergenerational Consequences of Tobacco Policy: A Review of Policy's Influence on Maternal Smoking and Child Health

Abstract

The response of pregnant women to tobacco policy is of particular interest due to these women being in a unique position to pass health capital to the next generation. By comparing estimates in the literature, we highlight that while pregnant women are responsive to taxes and taxes improve child health, their responsiveness has declined over time. We show that these trends reflect a compositional change; specifically, the least addicted smokers quit in the 1990s, leaving the pool of smoking mothers to be dominated by less price elastic smokers. Reviewing the literature on other tobacco policies, we show that a state‐level U.S. smoking ban has roughly three times the effect on pregnant women of a 10% increase in prices using elasticity estimates from more recent periods. Throughout this review, we identify areas for improvement in the literature and offer a number of ideas for future research projects.

The Economics of Tobacco Regulation: A Comprehensive Review

“…For example, they find that a one-dollar tax increase is associated with a thirty-gram increase in birthweight for teen mothers, but this is based on a marginally statistically significant coefficient as can be seen in their Table 2. Finally, a recent review style article by Lakdawala and Simon (2017) documents the declining elasticity of smoking participation among pregnant women over time and then considers four possible explanations: a change in statistical methodologies, a change in the rate at which tax is passed-through to cigarette price, the "local price environment" of tobacco products, and a composition change in the population of maternal smokers. The authors find suggestive evidence that there has been a compositional change in the population of maternal smokers.…”

The Economics of Tobacco Regulation: A Comprehensive Review

“…Moreover, the birthweight impacts for younger women are relatively small in magnitude.For example, they find that a one-dollar tax increase is associated with a thirty-gram increase in birthweight for teen mothers, but this is based on a marginally statistically significant coefficient as can be seen in their Table2. Finally, a recent review style article byLakdawala and Simon (2017) documents the declining elasticity of smoking participation among pregnant women over time and then considers four possible explanations: a change in statistical methodologies, a change in the rate at which tax is passed-through to cigarette price, the "local price environment" of tobacco products, and a composition change in the population of maternal smokers. The authors find suggestive evidence that there has been a compositional change in the population of maternal smokers.…”