Working Paper: NBER ID: w19036
Authors: Rebekka Christopoulou; Dean R. Lillard
Abstract: We exploit migration patterns from the UK to Australia, South Africa, and the US to investigate whether a person's decision to smoke is determined by culture. For each country, we use retrospective data to describe individual smoking trajectories over the life-course. For the UK, we use these trajectories to measure culture by cohort and cohort-age, and more accurately relative to the extant literature. Our proxy predicts smoking participation of second-generation British immigrants but not that of non-British immigrants and natives. Researchers can apply our strategy to estimate culture effects on other outcomes when retrospective or longitudinal data are available.
Keywords: Smoking behavior; Culture; Immigrants; Public health
JEL Codes: I10; J15; Z10
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| British smoking culture (L66) | smoking behavior of British immigrants in Australia and the US (I12) |
| smoking behavior of British immigrants in Australia and the US (I12) | smoking behavior of native populations and non-British immigrants (J15) |
| British smoking culture (L66) | smoking behavior of children of British immigrants (I12) |
| British smoking culture (L66) | smoking behavior of children of native-born parents (I12) |
| cultural transmission (Z13) | smoking behavior influenced by feminist attitudes and ethnic homogeneity (J16) |