Smoking Policies and Birth Outcomes: Estimates From a New Era / Sara Markowitz, E. Kathleen Adams, Patricia M. Dietz, Viji Kannan, Van Tong.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Markowitz, Sara.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Adams, E. Kathleen.

Dietz, Patricia M.

Kannan, Viji.

Tong, Van.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w17160.

NBER working paper series no. w17160

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Smoking Policies and Birth Outcomes

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2011.

Summary:

Smoking during pregnancy has been shown to have significant adverse health effects for new born babies. Smoking is the leading preventable cause of low birth weight of infants who in turn, need more resources at delivery and are more likely to have related health problems in infancy and beyond. Despite these outcomes, many women still smoke during pregnancy. The main question for policy makers is whether tobacco control policies can influence maternal smoking and reduce adverse birth outcomes. We examine this question using data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System data from 2000 to 2005. This is a time period during which states significantly changed their tobacco control policies by raising excise taxes and imposing strong restrictions on indoor smoking. We estimate reduced form models of birth weight and gestational weeks, focusing on the effects of taxes and workplace restrictions on smoking as the policies of interest. We also estimate demand equations for the probability of smoking during the third trimester. Results show that the smoking policies are effective, but limited to babies born to mothers of certain age groups. For babies born to teenage mothers, higher cigarette taxes are associated with small increases in birth weight and gestational weeks. For babies born to mothers ages 25-34, restrictions on smoking in the workplace are associated with small increases in gestational weeks.

Notes:

Print version record

June 2011.