| Titre : |
Do changes in education levels explain trends in smoking prevalence ? |
| Type de document : |
document électronique |
| Auteurs : |
Fabrice Etilé, Auteur ; Andrew M. Jones, Auteur |
| Année de publication : |
2004 |
| Importance : |
48 p. |
| Langues : |
Anglais (eng) |
| Catégories : |
[DIVERS] géographie:Europe:Europe occidentale:France
[TABAC] étude:statistique:prévalence
[TABAC] prévention:santé:éducation pour la santé
[TABAC] tabagisme:tabagisme actif
|
| Index. décimale : |
TA 2.2.2 France |
| Résumé : |
This paper investigates the links between education and smoking in France over the last century using time series of sales and price data, several surveys on education, and an individual data set containing information on smoking histories. A reduction of per-capita consumption as well as the decline of the sales price elasticity were observed in the second part of the last century. Improved education levels may explain this reduction because more educated people are more able to comprehend health warnings about smoking dangers (the efficiency argument), and second because they face higher opportunity costs of smoking. Utility being assumed relative, we use changes in the distribution of education levels by cohort and gender to build proxies for education-related opportunity costs of smoking. Controlling for yearly price variations and unobserved heterogeneity, we find that these costs are positively correlated with the age of starting and negatively correlated with smoking duration, while education has little effect per se on smoking. Furthermore, as post 1976 price (tax) increases were coordinated with information campaigns, one expect greater price elasticities for the more educated if the efficiency argument holds. We find that price elasticities of the age of starting do not vary across education levels and are mostly insignificant. But price elasticities of smoking duration are higher for the more educated, especially after 1976. These results suggest that the efficiency mechanism translates differences in education levels into differences in smoking behaviours only after adolescence (which is the period at risk for starting). Despite the overall rise of the education level throughout the last century, the less educated are still less reactive to anti-smoking policies because incentives to quit, in terms of opportunity costs are lower, which has a cumulative addiction effect and then decreases their price sensitivity. As a consequence, the reduction of aggregate sales is mainly due to a decrease of smoking prevalence among the more affluent. |
| Permalink : |
https://biblio.fares.be/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=10047 |
|
Do changes in education levels explain trends in smoking prevalence ? (2004)
