The Effect of Smoking on Obesity: Evidence from a Randomized Trial / Charles Courtemanche, Rusty Tchernis, Benjamin Ukert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Courtemanche, Charles.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Tchernis, Rusty.

Ukert, Benjamin.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w21937.

NBER working paper series no. w21937

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Effect of Smoking on Obesity

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2016.

Summary:

This paper aims to identify the causal effect of smoking on body mass index (BMI) using data from the Lung Health Study, a randomized trial of smoking cessation treatments. Since nicotine is a metabolic stimulant and appetite suppressant, quitting or reducing smoking could lead to weight gain. Using randomized treatment assignment to instrument for smoking, we estimate that quitting smoking leads to an average long- run weight gain of 1.8-1.9 BMI units, or 11-12 pounds at the average height. These results imply that the drop in smoking in recent decades explains 14% of the concurrent rise in obesity. Semi-parametric models provide evidence of a diminishing marginal effect of smoking on BMI, while subsample regressions show that the impact is largest for younger individuals, females, those with no college degree, and those in the lowest quartile of baseline BMI.

Notes:

Print version record

January 2016.