Seasonality in Smoking Behaviour: Re-Evaluating the Effects of the 2005 Public Smoking Ban in Italy

35 Pages Posted: 10 Dec 2014

See all articles by Emilia Del Bono

Emilia Del Bono

Institute for Social and Economic Research; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Klaus Grünberger

University of Rome Tor Vergata

Daniela Vuri

University of Rome Tor Vergata; IZA Institute of Labor Economics; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research)

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: November 30, 2014

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of the public smoking ban which came into effect in Italy on January 2005 on individual smoking behaviour. Current empirical evidence supports the existence of a negative effect of the Italian ban on smoking prevalence and consumption in the general population. This is in contrast to what has been found in some other European countries. Our analysis shows that the apparent success of the Italian smoking ban is due to the fact that existing results do not take into account seasonal differences in smoking behaviour. Using quarterly data from the 1999/2000 and 2004/2005 Italian Health Surveys and adopting a difference-in-difference approach that nets out monthly variation in smoking rates, we show that the Italian smoking ban had no impact on individual smoking behaviour for the population as a whole, and only small effects on some groups of individuals.

Keywords: smoking, cigarette consumption, public smoking ban, treatment effects

JEL Classification: I120, I180, K320, C310

Suggested Citation

Del Bono, Emilia and Grünberger, Klaus and Vuri, Daniela, Seasonality in Smoking Behaviour: Re-Evaluating the Effects of the 2005 Public Smoking Ban in Italy (November 30, 2014). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 5083, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2536273 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2536273

Emilia Del Bono

Institute for Social and Economic Research ( email )

Wivenhoe Park
Colchester CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/staff/staff-details.php?personID=678

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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

Klaus Grünberger

University of Rome Tor Vergata ( email )

Via di Tor Vergata
Rome, Lazio 00133
Italy

Daniela Vuri (Contact Author)

University of Rome Tor Vergata ( email )

Via di Tor Vergata
Rome, Lazio 00133
Italy

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

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