Working Paper: NBER ID: w15232
Authors: Padmaja Ayyagari; Jody L. Sindelar
Abstract: This paper examines the impact of job-related stress on smoking behavior. We use data from the Health and Retirement Study to examine how high job stress affects the probability that smokers quit and the number of cigarettes smoked for current smokers. We include individual fixed effects, which control for time-invariant factors. Occupational fixed effects are also included to control for occupational characteristics other than stress; time dummies control for the secular decline in smoking rates. Using a sample of people who smoked in the previous wave, we find that job stress is positively related to continuing to smoke and to the number of cigarettes smoked for current smokers. The FE results are of greater magnitude and significance than the OLS results suggesting an important omitted variable bias in OLS estimates. It may be that individuals who are able to handle stress or have better self-control are more likely to have high stress jobs and less likely to smoke. We also find that the smoking/stress relationship is neither explained by heterogeneity across individuals in cognitive ability, risk taking preferences or planning horizons nor is it explained by time varying measures that we observe.
Keywords: job stress; smoking behavior; Health and Retirement Study; older workers; smoking cessation
JEL Codes: I10; I12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Job-related stress (J28) | Smoking behavior (I12) |
| High job stress (J28) | Likelihood of continuing to smoke (I12) |
| High job stress (J28) | Intensity of smoking among current smokers (I12) |
| Self-control (G53) | Job-related stress (J28) |
| Job stress (J28) | Smoking behavior (I12) |
| Job stress (J28) | Increased smoking as a form of self-medication (I12) |