Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/179878 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Citation: 
[Journal:] Review of Economic Perspectives [ISSN:] 1804-1663 [Volume:] 17 [Issue:] 3 [Publisher:] De Gruyter [Place:] Warsaw [Year:] 2017 [Pages:] 219-238
Publisher: 
De Gruyter, Warsaw
Abstract: 
This paper investigates the effect of peer smoking on individual smoking among youths in 10 countries that participated in the European Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS). I control for endogeneity in school selection and unobserved school-level characteristics through the use of school fixed-effects. I use instrumental variables to address the simultaneity in peer and individual behaviours. Identification arises by comparing students in different classes within the same school. On average, an increase in the share of classmates who smoke by 10 percentage points increases the probability that an individual in that class will smoke by 3 to 6.9 percentage points. The results imply that any policy intervention such as anti-smoking messages, smoking bans, or higher cigarette prices will be even more cost-effective because of the social multiplier effect of peers – policies affecting some individuals in a group will generate spillovers to others through the peer effect.
Subjects: 
adolescent smoking
European youths
peer effects
substance use
JEL: 
I12
D1
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc-nd Logo
Document Type: 
Article

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