TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cutler, David M
AU  - Glaeser, Edward L
TI  - Social Interactions and Smoking
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13477
PY  - 2007
Y2  - October 2007
DO  - 10.3386/w13477
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13477
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13477.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David M. Cutler
Department of Economics
Harvard University
1875 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/496-5216
Fax: 617/496-8951
E-Mail: dcutler@harvard.edu

Edward L. Glaeser
Department of Economics
315A Littauer Center
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-0575
Fax: 617/495-7730
E-Mail: eglaeser@harvard.edu
M1  - published as David M. Cutler, Edward L. Glaeser. "Social Interactions and Smoking," in David A. Wise, editor, "Research Findings in the Economics of Aging" University of Chicago Press (2010)

AB  - Are individuals more likely to smoke when they are surrounded by smokers?  In this paper, we examine the evidence for peer effects in smoking.  We address the endogeneity of peers by looking at the impact of workplace smoking bans on spousal and peer group smoking.  Using these bans as an instrument, we find that individuals whose spouses smoke are 40 percent more likely to smoke themselves.  We also find evidence for the existence of a social multiplier in that the impact of smoking bans and individual income becomes stronger at higher levels of aggregation.  This social multiplier could explain the large time series drop in smoking among some demographic groups.
ER  -