title: Smoking bans, cigarette prices and life satisfaction.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: University of Basel, Faculty of Business and Economics, Center for Research in Economics and Well-Being, Peter Merian-Weg 6, 4002 Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: reto.odermatt@unibas.ch.
authors.forename: Reto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Odermatt
authors.affiliation: University of Basel, Faculty of Business and Economics, Center for Research in Economics and Well-Being, Peter Merian-Weg 6, 4002 Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: alois.stutzer@unibas.ch.
authors.forename: Alois
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stutzer
mesh_terms: D003132:Commerce; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D060909:Economics, Behavioral; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006291:Health Policy / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D000068356:Self-Control / Q000523:psychology; D012907:Smoking / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D013660:Taxes / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D062789:Tobacco Products / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000517:prevention & control*
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution
keywords: Addiction; Cigarette prices; Life satisfaction; Self-control; Smoking bans