Do Smoking Bans Improve Infant Health? Evidence from U.S. Births: 1995-2009

Among the newest policies developed to reduce smoking and improve health are smoking bans. Using individual-level birth certificate data from the Natality Detail File between 1995 and 2009 and data on county smoking bans, we investigate the impacts of smoking bans on infant birth weight, length of g...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEastern economic journal Vol. 43; no. 3; pp. 472 - 495
Main Authors Gao, Jia, Baughman, Reagan A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Palgrave Macmillan 01.06.2017
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Subjects
Apgar score
Bans
Birth weight
Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods
Economics
Economics and Finance
Public health
Public policy
Smoking
Tobacco smoke
birth weight
I18
smoking bans
infant health
smoking
I10
I12
clean indoor air laws
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Summary:Among the newest policies developed to reduce smoking and improve health are smoking bans. Using individual-level birth certificate data from the Natality Detail File between 1995 and 2009 and data on county smoking bans, we investigate the impacts of smoking bans on infant birth weight, length of gestation, 5-minute APGAR score, and cleft palate. Smoking bans are not associated with significant improvements in infant health. Instead, we find small increases in low birth weight and very low birth weight in infants born to young mothers who live in counties that adopted at least one type of ban during the study period.
ISSN:0094-5056
1939-4632
DOI:10.1057/s41302-016-0010-0