Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP14471
Authors: Gianni De Fraja; Carlo Ciccarelli; Daniela Vuri
Abstract: This paper studies the effect of passive smoking on child development. We use data from a time when the adverse effects of smoking on health were not known, and when tobacco was not an inferior good. This allows us to disentangle the effect on foetuses and infants of smoking from that of other indicators of social and economic conditions. We exploit a set of unique longitudinal historical datasets defined at a detailed level of geographical disaggregation, namely the 69 Italian provinces. The datasets record precise information on the per capita consumption of tobacco products, the heights of twenty-year old conscripts in the second half of the 19th century Italy, and other relevant controls. We find a strong negative effect of smoking in the period before and after birth on the height at age 20. Results are robust to changes in specification and consistent across the height distribution.
Keywords: Passive Smoking; Stature; Nineteenth Century Italy; Infant Development
JEL Codes: I12; J13; N33
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Passive smoking exposure during pregnancy and infancy (J13) | adult height (I15) |
| Tobacco consumption (L66) | adult height (I15) |
| Snuff tobacco consumption (L66) | adult height (I15) |
| Potential exposure to passive smoking at age four (I12) | adult height (I15) |
| Tobacco consumption (L66) | passive smoking exposure during pregnancy and infancy (J13) |