Determinants of Smoking Cessation: An Analysis of Young Adult Men and Women

Substantial econometric efforts have been devoted to examining the impacts prices and tobacco control policies have on smoking propensity and intensity. However, little is known about the effects prices, smoking restrictions, and other influences have on smoking cessation. This paper uses longitudinal data from the Monitoring the Future Surveys, augmented with cigarette price and policy-related measures to estimate smoking cessation equations for young adult males and females separately. The estimates clearly indicate that increases in cigarette prices would lead a significant number of young adults to quit smoking. In addition, policies restricting smoking in private worksites increase the probability of smoking cessation among employed young adult females.