Does the Presence of Very Young Children and/or Older Minor-aged Children in the Home Reduce Cigarette Smoking? Panel Data Evidence for the United States

Abstract

Within the context of the Period Fixed-Effects Model, this study of cigarette consumption in the US uses a state-level panel dataset to investigate a new hypothesis. This hypothesis argues that the presence in the home of minor-aged children, that is, children under 18 years of age, reduces the percentage of the population that smokes cigarettes. The eclectic model includes the levels of federal plus state cigarette excise taxation along with a number of other established explanatory variables. The empirical estimates in this preliminary study find support for the hypothesis proffered here, that is, it is found that the percentage of the population that smokes cigarettes is a decreasing function of the percentage of households with minor-aged children residing in the home. Moreover, aside from providing further insight into smoker behaviour, the results from this study also raise the question that since this phenomenon has been ignored in previous related studies involving such public policies as cigarette taxation and cigarette smoking bans that those studies may suffer from omitted variable bias. JEL Classification: R22, I18, H71, H29