Tobacco Sales Prohibition and Teen Smoking

67 Pages Posted: 21 May 2019

See all articles by Armando Meier

Armando Meier

University of Lausanne and University of Basel

Reto Odermatt

University of Basel

Alois Stutzer

University of Basel; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Abstract

We evaluate one of the most prevalent prohibitory policies: banning the sales of tobacco to teens. We exploit the staggered introduction of sales bans across Switzerland and the European Union from 1990 to 2016. The estimates indicate a less than 1 percentage point reduction in teen smoking because of the bans. The reduction is substantially lower than the 5 percentage point reduction expected by health officials. We examine additional outcomes relevant to assessing any prohibitory policy. We find that teens circumvent the bans through peers. Moreover, they consider smokers less cool but do not think smoking is more dangerous.

Keywords: prohibition, tobacco sales bans, youth smoking, attitudes toward smoking, tobacco prevention

JEL Classification: D12, I12, I18, K42

Suggested Citation

Meier, Armando and Odermatt, Reto and Stutzer, Alois, Tobacco Sales Prohibition and Teen Smoking. IZA Discussion Paper No. 12231, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3390220 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3390220

Armando Meier (Contact Author)

University of Lausanne and University of Basel ( email )

Reto Odermatt

University of Basel

Alois Stutzer

University of Basel ( email )

Faculty of Business and Economics
Peter Merian-Weg 6
4002 Basel
Switzerland
0041 61 207 3361 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.wwz.unibas.ch/en/stutzer/

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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

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