MORE BAD-NEWS FOR SMOKERS - THE EFFECTS OF CIGARETTE-SMOKING ON WAGES

Using National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data, the authors examine the effect of smoking on wages. Their analysis controls for difference s in individual characteristics that may be correlated with both smoki ng and wages, including unobservable person-specific characteristics t hat are constant over time, and unobservable characteristics that are constant within a family. Estimates from alternative specifications in dicate that smoking reduced wages by roughly 4-8%. Empirical tests of three potential explanations for this finding yield no conclusive resu lts.