Departamento de Economía, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain.
Eur J Health Econ. 2013 Apr;14(2):161-70. doi: 10.1007/s10198-011-0356-5. Epub 2011 Oct 21.
In this paper, we sustain that non-smokers who might be at risk of starting to smoke or relapsing can benefit from anti-smoking policies such as tax hikes and smoking bans because these are mechanisms that enhance their self-control with regard to tobacco consumption. We formalize this conjecture by proposing a model where starting/relapsing might result from time inconsistent preferences in a way that mirrors the inability of some smokers to carry out the decision to quit. Subsequently, we specify econometric models that allow us to test the implications of such conjecture using information on smoking behavior at the individual level from the Catalan Health Survey of 2006. The empirical results support our conjecture and suggest that the welfare gains derived from the reinforcement of self-control caused by tax hikes and smoking bans will accrue not only to smokers but also to the rest of the population.
在本文中，我们认为可能有开始吸烟或复吸风险的不吸烟者可以从提高烟草税和禁烟等反吸烟政策中受益，因为这些政策可以增强他们对烟草消费的自我控制能力。我们通过提出一个模型来形式化这一推测，在这个模型中，开始/复吸可能是由于时间不一致的偏好造成的，这种方式反映了一些吸烟者无法执行戒烟决定的情况。随后，我们使用 2006 年加泰罗尼亚健康调查的个人吸烟行为信息，指定了计量经济学模型，以检验这一推测的含义。实证结果支持我们的推测，并表明提高烟草税和禁烟对自我控制的强化所带来的福利收益不仅将使吸烟者受益，也将使其他人群受益。
