title: The economic impact of Mexico City's smoke-free law.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the economic impact of Mexico City's 2008 smoke-free law--The Non-Smokers' Health Protection Law on restaurants, bars and nightclubs.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used the Monthly Services Survey of businesses from January 2005 to April 2009--with revenues, employment and payments to employees as the principal outcomes. The results are estimated using a differences-in-differences regression model with fixed effects. The states of Jalisco, Nuevo León and México, where the law was not in effect, serve as a counterfactual comparison group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In restaurants, after accounting for observable factors and the fixed effects, there was a 24.8% increase in restaurants' revenue associated with the smoke-free law. This difference is not statistically significant but shows that, on average, restaurants did not suffer economically as a result of the law. Total wages increased by 28.2% and employment increased by 16.2%. In nightclubs, bars and taverns there was a decrease of 1.5% in revenues and an increase of 0.1% and 3.0%, respectively, in wages and employment. None of these effects are statistically significant in multivariate analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is no statistically significant evidence that the Mexico City smoke-free law had a negative impact on restaurants' income, employees' wages and levels of employment. On the contrary, the results show a positive, though statistically non-significant, impact of the law on most of these outcomes. Mexico City's experience suggests that smoke-free laws in Mexico and elsewhere will not hurt economic productivity in the restaurant and bar industries.
authors.affiliation: Department for Tobacco Research, Population Health Research Center, National Institute for Public Health, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
authors.forename: Carlos Manuel Guerrero
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: López
authors.forename: Jorge Alberto Jiménez
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Ruiz
authors.forename: Luz Myriam Reynales
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Shigematsu
authors.forename: Hugh R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Waters
mesh_terms: D003132:Commerce / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D006291:Health Policy / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D008800:Mexico; D012147:Restaurants / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D012907:Smoking / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000517:prevention & control
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution