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The Effects of Smoking Bans on Self‐Assessed Health: Evidence from Germany
Author(s) -
Kuehnle Daniel,
Wunder Christoph
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
health economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1099-1050
pISSN - 1057-9230
DOI - 10.1002/hec.3310
Subject(s) - german , enforcement , environmental health , medicine , panel data , demography , self rated health , demographic economics , psychology , political science , gerontology , economics , geography , sociology , archaeology , law , econometrics
Summary We examine the effects of smoking bans on self‐assessed health in Germany taking into account heterogeneities by smoking status, gender and age. We exploit regional variation in the dates of enactment and dates of enforcement across German federal states. Using data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel, our difference‐in‐differences estimates show that non‐smokers' health improves, whereas smokers report no or even adverse health effects in response to bans. We find statistically significant health improvements especially for non‐smokers living in households with at least one smoker. Non smokers' health improvements materialise largely with the enactment of smoking bans. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.