A decomposition analysis of cigarette consumption differences between male Turkish immigrants and Germans in West Germany 2002-2012

In this article, we investigate the differences in smoking behavior between male Turkish immigrants and male Germans, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). More specifically, we use a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method for count data models, and isolate differences in the number of cigarettes consumed daily between Turkish immigrants and Germans into a component reflecting differences in observed socio-economic characteristics and a component reflecting unobserved smoking behavior. Our results reveal that more than 50% of the differences in cigarette consumption between male Turkish immigrants and male Germans is attributable to observable characteristics.