Odermatt Reto, Stutzer Alois
University of Basel, Faculty of Business and Economics, Center for Research in Economics and Well-Being, Peter Merian-Weg 6, 4002 Basel, Switzerland.
J Health Econ. 2015 Dec;44:176-94. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2015.09.010. Epub 2015 Oct 9.
The consequences of tobacco control policies for individual welfare are difficult to assess, even more so when related consumption choices challenge people's willpower. We therefore evaluate the impact of smoking bans and cigarette prices on subjective well-being by analyzing data for 40 European countries and regions between 1990 and 2011. We exploit the staggered introduction of bans and apply an imputation strategy to study the effect of anti-smoking policies on people with different propensities to smoke. We find that higher cigarette prices reduce the life satisfaction of likely smokers. Overall, smoking bans are barely related to subjective well-being, but increase the life satisfaction of smokers who would like to quit smoking. The latter finding is consistent with cue-triggered models of addiction and the idea of bans as self-control devices.
烟草控制政策对个人福利的影响难以评估，当相关消费选择挑战人们的意志力时更是如此。因此，我们通过分析1990年至2011年间40个欧洲国家和地区的数据，评估吸烟禁令和香烟价格对主观幸福感的影响。我们利用禁令的逐步实施，并应用一种估算策略来研究反吸烟政策对不同吸烟倾向人群的影响。我们发现，香烟价格上涨会降低可能吸烟者的生活满意度。总体而言，吸烟禁令与主观幸福感几乎没有关联，但会提高想要戒烟的吸烟者的生活满意度。后一个发现与成瘾的线索触发模型以及将禁令视为自我控制手段的观点相一致。
