Put Your Money Where Your Butt Is: A Commitment Contract for Smoking Cessation | Zendy

Xavier Giné | Zendy; Dean Karlan | Zendy; Jonathan Zinman | Zendy

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Put Your Money Where Your Butt Is: A Commitment Contract for Smoking Cessation

Author(s) -

Xavier Giné,

Dean Karlan,

Jonathan Zinman

Publication year - 2010

Publication title -

american economic journal applied economics

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 12.996

H-Index - 82

eISSN - 1945-7782

pISSN - 1945-7790

DOI - 10.1257/app.2.4.213

Subject(s) - cotinine , smoking cessation , nicotine , surprise , test (biology) , quit smoking , product (mathematics) , medicine , business , psychology , social psychology , paleontology , geometry , mathematics , pathology , biology

We designed and tested a voluntary commitment product to help smokers quit smoking. The product (CARES) offered smokers a savings account in which they deposit funds for six months, after which they take a urine test for nicotine and cotinine. If they pass, their money is returned; otherwise, their money is forfeited to charity. Of smokers offered CARES, 11 percent took up, and smokers randomly offered CARES were 3 percentage points more likely to pass the 6-month test than the control group. More importantly, this effect persisted in surprise tests at 12 months, indicating that CARES produced lasting smoking cessation. (JEL D12, I12, O15)

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