The Evolution of Considerate Smoking Behavior

Discussion Paper No. 279, Statistics Norway

22 Pages Posted: 13 Oct 2000

See all articles by Karine Nyborg

Karine Nyborg

University of Oslo - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Mari Rege

Case Western Reserve University - Department of Economics

Date Written: July 2000

Abstract

This paper studies the formation of social norms for considerate smoking behavior. Being considerate gives smokers a higher social approval from non-smokers, but imposes an inconvenience cost. A non-smoker's disapproval of inconsiderate smoking is assumed to be stronger the less used he is to being exposed to passive smoking. The analysis shows that introduction of a smoking regulation may move the society from an initial no-consideration Nash equilibrium to a Nash equilibrium in which every smoker is considerate, even in the unregulated zone. This crowding in of considerate behavior will prevail even after policy reversal. Empirical evidence confirms that a shift in social norms on considerate smoking has taken place in Norway after the smoking law amendments in 1988, and supports the plausibility of model assumptions.

JEL Classification: C72, D11, I18.

Suggested Citation

Nyborg, Karine and Rege, Mari S., The Evolution of Considerate Smoking Behavior (July 2000). Discussion Paper No. 279, Statistics Norway, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=243751 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.243751

Karine Nyborg (Contact Author)

University of Oslo - Department of Economics ( email )

P.O.Box 1095 Blindern
Oslo, N-0317
Norway

HOME PAGE: http://folk.uio.no/karineny/

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Mari S. Rege

Case Western Reserve University - Department of Economics ( email )

Cleveland, OH 44106
United States
216-368-4185 (Phone)
216-368-5039 (Fax)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
160
Abstract Views
2,013
Rank
334,612
PlumX Metrics