IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jhecon/v30y2011i4p811-831.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Schooling and smoking among the baby boomers - An evaluation of the impact of educational expansion in France

Author

Listed:
  • Etilé, Fabrice
  • Jones, Andrew M.

Abstract

Post-war expansion of education in France transformed the distribution of schooling for the cohorts born between the 1940s and the 1970s. However, throughout this expansion the proportion with the highest levels of qualifications remained stable, providing a natural control group. We evaluate the impact of schooling on smoking, for the beneficiaries of the post-war expansion, by comparing changes in their outcomes across birth cohorts with changes within the control group. We uncover robust evidence that educational expansion contributed to a decline in smoking prevalence of 2.9 points of percentage for men and 3.2 points for women at the turn of the 21st century. Our results also suggest that the persistence of the schooling-smoking gradient is better explained by differences in the education-related opportunity costs of smoking than by differences in information about smoking dangers.

Suggested Citation

  • Etilé, Fabrice & Jones, Andrew M., 2011. "Schooling and smoking among the baby boomers - An evaluation of the impact of educational expansion in France," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 811-831, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:30:y:2011:i:4:p:811-831
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629611000464
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Valérie Albouy & Thomas Wanecq, 2003. "Les inégalités sociales d'accès aux grandes écoles suivi d'un commentaire de Louis-André Vallet," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 361(1), pages 27-52.
    2. Lundborg, Petter, 2006. "Having the wrong friends? Peer effects in adolescent substance use," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 214-233, March.
    3. Marc Gurgand & Eric Maurin, 2007. "A large scale experiment: wages and educational expansion in France," PSE Working Papers halshs-00587884, HAL.
    4. Claudia Senik, 2008. "Ambition and Jealousy: Income Interactions in the ‘Old’ Europe versus the ‘New’ Europe and the United States," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 75(299), pages 495-513, August.
    5. Arnaud Chevalier & Colm Harmon & Ian Walker & Yu Zhu, 2004. "Does Education Raise Productivity, or Just Reflect it?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(499), pages 499-517, November.
    6. Angel López Nicolás, 2002. "How important are tobacco prices in the propensity to start and quit smoking? An analysis of smoking histories from the Spanish National Health Survey," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(6), pages 521-535, September.
    7. Florence Jusot & Sandy Tubeuf & Alain Trannoy, 2010. "Effort or Circumstances: Does the Correlation Matter for Inequality of Opportunity in Health?," Working Papers DT33, IRDES institut for research and information in health economics, revised Jul 2010.
    8. Ted O'Donoghue & Matthew Rabin, 2001. "Risky Behavior among Youths: Some Issues from Behavioral Economics," NBER Chapters, in: Risky Behavior among Youths: An Economic Analysis, pages 29-68, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Jenkins, Stephen P, 1995. "Easy Estimation Methods for Discrete-Time Duration Models," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 57(1), pages 129-138, February.
    10. Gary S. Becker & Casey B. Mulligan, 1997. "The Endogenous Determination of Time Preference," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(3), pages 729-758.
    11. Andrew CLARK & Emanuela D'ANGELO, 2010. "Upward Social Mobility, Well-being and;Political Preferences: Evidence from the;BHPS," Working Papers 338, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    12. Grimard, Franque & Parent, Daniel, 2007. "Education and smoking: Were Vietnam war draft avoiders also more likely to avoid smoking?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 896-926, September.
    13. Kenkel, Donald S, 1991. "Health Behavior, Health Knowledge, and Schooling," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(2), pages 287-305, April.
    14. Jürges, Hendrik & Reinhold, Steffen & Salm, Martin, 2011. "Does schooling affect health behavior? Evidence from the educational expansion in Western Germany," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 862-872, October.
    15. Claudia Senik, 2008. "Ambition and jealousy: Income interactions in the 'Old Europe versus the 'New' Europe and the United States," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-00754274, HAL.
    16. Clark, Andrew E. & Loheac, Youenn, 2007. ""It wasn't me, it was them!" Social influence in risky behavior by adolescents," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 763-784, July.
    17. Donald Kenkel & Dean Lillard & Alan Mathios, 2006. "The Roles of High School Completion and GED Receipt in Smoking and Obesity," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 635-660, July.
    18. James H. Stock & Motohiro Yogo, 2002. "Testing for Weak Instruments in Linear IV Regression," NBER Technical Working Papers 0284, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Alejandro Gaviria & Steven Raphael, 2001. "School-Based Peer Effects And Juvenile Behavior," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(2), pages 257-268, May.
    20. Grossman, Michael, 2000. "The human capital model," Handbook of Health Economics, in: A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 7, pages 347-408, Elsevier.
    21. Martin Forster & Andrew M. Jones, 2001. "The role of tobacco taxes in starting and quitting smoking: Duration analysis of British data," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 164(3), pages 517-547.
    22. Daiji Kawaguchi, 2004. "Peer effects on substance use among American teenagers," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 17(2), pages 351-367, June.
    23. Grossman, Michael, 2004. "The demand for health, 30 years later: a very personal retrospective and prospective reflection," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 629-636, July.
    24. Albouy, Valerie & Lequien, Laurent, 2009. "Does compulsory education lower mortality?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 155-168, January.
    25. Powell, Lisa M. & Tauras, John A. & Ross, Hana, 2005. "The importance of peer effects, cigarette prices and tobacco control policies for youth smoking behavior," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 950-968, September.
    26. Hildegard Brauns & Susanne Steinmann, 1997. "Educational Reform in France, West-Germany, the United Kingdom and Hungary: Updating the CASMIN Educational Classification," MZES Working Papers 21, MZES.
    27. repec:dau:papers:123456789/10510 is not listed on IDEAS
    28. Victor R. Fuchs, 2018. "Schooling and Health: The Cigarette Connection," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Health Economics and Policy Selected Writings by Victor Fuchs, chapter 9, pages 99-113, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    29. Martin Forster & Andrew M. Jones, "undated". "The role of tobacco taxes in starting and quitting smoking," Discussion Papers 00/51, Department of Economics, University of York.
    30. de Walque, Damien, 2007. "Does education affect smoking behaviors?: Evidence using the Vietnam draft as an instrument for college education," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 877-895, September.
    31. Victor R. Fuchs, 2018. "Reflections on the Socio-Economic Correlates of Health," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Health Economics and Policy Selected Writings by Victor Fuchs, chapter 10, pages 115-124, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    32. Douglas, Stratford & Hariharan, Govind, 1994. "The hazard of starting smoking: Estimates from a split population duration model," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 213-230, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Damien Bricard & Florence Jusot & François Beck & Myriam Khlat & Stéphane Legleye, 2014. "L’évolution des inégalités sociales de tabagisme au cours du cycle de vie : une analyse selon la cohorte et le genre," Post-Print hal-01523920, HAL.
    2. Michael Grossman, 2015. "The Relationship between Health and Schooling: What's New?," Working Papers 8, City University of New York Graduate Center, Ph.D. Program in Economics.
    3. James, Jonathan & Vujić, Sunčica, 2019. "From high school to the high chair: Education and fertility timing," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1-24.
    4. repec:dau:papers:123456789/9292 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Ana María Iregui-Bohórquez & Ligia Alba Melo-Becerra & María Teresa Ramírez-Giraldo, 2019. "Is there a relationship between schooling and risky health behaviors in Colombia?," Revista Cuadernos de Economia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID, vol. 38(77), pages 365-395, July.
    6. Baltagi, Badi H. & Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso & Karatas, Haci M., 2023. "The effect of higher education on Women's obesity and smoking: Evidence from college openings in Turkey," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    7. Ana María Iregui-Bohórquez & Ligia Alba Melo-Becerra & María Teresa Ramírez-Giraldo, 2015. "Risky Health Behaviors: Evidence for an Emerging Economy," Borradores de Economia 13040, Banco de la Republica.
    8. Hamad, Rita & Elser, Holly & Tran, Duy C. & Rehkopf, David H. & Goodman, Steven N., 2018. "How and why studies disagree about the effects of education on health: A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies of compulsory schooling laws," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 168-178.
    9. Basu, Anirban & Jones, Andrew M. & Dias, Pedro Rosa, 2018. "Heterogeneity in the impact of type of schooling on adult health and lifestyle," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1-14.
    10. Ma, Yuanyuan & Nolan, Anne & Smith, James P., 2018. "The value of education to health: Evidence from Ireland," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 14-25.
    11. James, Jonathan, 2015. "Health and education expansion," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 193-215.
    12. Courtin, Emilie & Nafilyan, Vahe & Avendano, Mauricio & Meneton, Pierre & Berkman, Lisa F. & Goldberg, Marcel & Zins, Marie & Dowd, Jennifer B., 2019. "Longer schooling but not better off? A quasi-experimental study of the effect of compulsory schooling on biomarkers in France," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 379-386.
    13. Jared C. Carbone & Snorre Kverndokk, 2016. "Individual Investments in Education and Health: Policy Responses and Interactions," CESifo Working Paper Series 6154, CESifo.
    14. repec:dau:papers:123456789/14335 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. G. Emmanuel Guindon & Guillermo R. Paraje & Ricardo Chávez, 2018. "Prices, Inflation, And Smoking Onset: The Case Of Argentina," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(1), pages 424-445, January.
    16. Damien Bricard & Florence Jusot, 2012. "Milieu d’origine, situation sociale et parcours tabagique en France," Post-Print hal-01593798, HAL.
    17. Sandy Tubeuf & Florence Jusot & Damien Bricard, 2012. "Mediating Role Of Education And Lifestyles In The Relationship Between Early‐Life Conditions And Health: Evidence From The 1958 British Cohort," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(S1), pages 129-150, June.
    18. Liu, Sze Yan & Buka, Stephen L. & Kubzansky, Laura D. & Kawachi, Ichiro & Gilman, Stephen E. & Loucks, Eric B., 2013. "Sheepskin effects of education in the 10-year Framingham risk of coronary heart disease," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 31-36.
    19. Titus J. Galama & Adriana Lleras-Muney & Hans van Kippersluis, 2018. "The Effect of Education on Health and Mortality: A Review of Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Evidence," NBER Working Papers 24225, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Mallick, Debdulal & Khalil, Islam & Nicholas, Aaron, 2023. "Does Less Education Harm Health? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in a Developing Country," MPRA Paper 116184, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Heckley, Gawain & Nordin, Martin & Gerdtham, Ulf-G., 2018. "Could Easier Access to University Improve Health and Reduce Health Inequalities?," Working Papers 2018:5, Lund University, Department of Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tenn, Steven & Herman, Douglas A. & Wendling, Brett, 2010. "The role of education in the production of health: An empirical analysis of smoking behavior," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 404-417, May.
    2. Jiang, Wei & Lu, Yi & Xie, Huihua, 2020. "Education and mental health: Evidence and mechanisms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 407-437.
    3. Damon Clark & Heather Royer, 2010. "The Effect of Education on Adult Health and Mortality: Evidence from Britain," NBER Working Papers 16013, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Pierre Koning & Dinand Webbink & Nicholas Martin, 2015. "The effect of education on smoking behavior: new evidence from smoking durations of a sample of twins," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 1479-1497, June.
    5. Jürges Hendrik & Meyer Sophie-Charlotte, 2020. "Educational Differences in Smoking: Selection Versus Causation," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 240(4), pages 467-492, August.
    6. Grimard, Franque & Parent, Daniel, 2007. "Education and smoking: Were Vietnam war draft avoiders also more likely to avoid smoking?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 896-926, September.
    7. Bautista, María Angélica & González, Felipe & Martinez, Luis R. & Muñoz, Pablo & Prem, Mounu, 2020. "Does Higher Education Reduce Mortality? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Chile," SocArXiv 5s2px, Center for Open Science.
    8. Anne Bretteville-Jensen, 2006. "Drug Demand – Initiation, Continuation and Quitting," De Economist, Springer, vol. 154(4), pages 491-516, December.
    9. Massimiliano Bratti & Alfonso Miranda, 2010. "Non‐pecuniary returns to higher education: the effect on smoking intensity in the UK," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(8), pages 906-920, August.
    10. Rasyad A. Parinduri, 2017. "Does Education Improve Health? Evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(9), pages 1358-1375, September.
    11. Jason M. Fletcher, 2010. "Social interactions and smoking: evidence using multiple student cohorts, instrumental variables, and school fixed effects," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(4), pages 466-484, April.
    12. Stefan Boes, 2011. "On the causal effect of schooling on smoking: evidence without exogeneity conditions," Diskussionsschriften dp1102, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    13. Palali, Ali & van Ours, Jan, 2015. "Love Conquers All but Nicotine : Spousal Peer Effects on the Decision to Quit Smoking," Other publications TiSEM f6c6cf33-30b0-404c-ad76-7, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    14. Jensen, Robert & Lleras-Muney, Adriana, 2012. "Does staying in school (and not working) prevent teen smoking and drinking?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 644-657.
    15. Aysit Tansel & Deniz Karaoglan, 2014. "Health Behaviors and Education in Turkey," ERC Working Papers 1406, ERC - Economic Research Center, Middle East Technical University, revised Jun 2014.
    16. DeCicca, Philip & Kenkel, Don & Mathios, Alan, 2008. "Cigarette taxes and the transition from youth to adult smoking: Smoking initiation, cessation, and participation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 904-917, July.
    17. Ana Balsa & Carlos Díaz, 2018. "Social interactions in health behaviors and conditions," Documentos de Trabajo/Working Papers 1802, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales y Economia. Universidad de Montevideo..
    18. Palali, Ali & van Ours, Jan, 2015. "Love Conquers All but Nicotine : Spousal Peer Effects on the Decision to Quit Smoking," Discussion Paper 2015-048, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    19. Maria L. Loureiro & Anna Sanz-de-Galdeano & Daniela Vuri, 2010. "Smoking Habits: Like Father, Like Son, Like Mother, Like Daughter?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 72(6), pages 717-743, December.
    20. Tony Beatton & Michael P. Kidd & Matteo Sandi, 2020. "School indiscipline and crime," CEP Discussion Papers dp1727, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health Smoking Education Educational expansion France;

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:30:y:2011:i:4:p:811-831. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505560 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.