Smoking and the Business Cycle: Evidence from Germany

Abstract

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The smoking epidemic across generations, genders, and educational groups: A matter of diffusion of innovations

“…To test the robustness of our results, we also re-run the model by assuming that period effects on smoking prevalence could derive from a business cycle effect that operates through economic conditions (Ruhm, 2005;Chang et al, 2016;Kaiser et al, 2017). The results of our sensitivity analysis are shown in the Appendix (see Tables A.4a and A.4b).…”

“…In order to test the robustness of our results, we also re-run the model by assuming that period effects on the smoking prevalence could derive from a business cycle effect operating through economic conditions. Indeed, Clark et al (2010) show that changes in aggregate economic conditions affect subjective well-being, which may also influence the propensity towards smoking (Ruhm, 2005;Chang et al, 2016;Kaiser et al, 2017).…”

Identifying the Impact of the Business Cycle on Drug-Related Harms in European Countries

“…The severity of the crisis was measured through the worsening in labor market conditions. Unemployment rates were used to proxy fluctuations in the economic cycle, as these are the most generalized measure used in this field (Nagelhout et al, 2017;Hollingsworth et al, 2017;Martin & Vall, 2016;Kaiser et al, 2017). In comparison with other indicators, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, unemployment is closely associated with variations in health indicators.…”

“…Unemployment is also associated with a higher risk of premature death (Brenner et al, 2011;Bloemen et al, 2018;d'Errico et al, 2021;Vodopivec et al, 2021). Among the studies that use macroeconomic indicators to explain drug use and harms, the vast majority of the literature uses unemployment as as proxy for assessing economic recessions affecting households and individuals (Dávalos et al, 2012;Nagelhout et al, 2017;Carpenter et al, 2017;Hollingsworth et al, 2017;Ayllón & Ferreira-Batista, 2018;Martin & Vall, 2016;Palling & Vall, 2017;Bosque-Prous et al, 2015;Kaiser et al, 2017). Unemployment is commonly measured by unemployment rates: the number of persons who are not employed (aged 15 to 74) as a percentage of the total population.…”