Sins of the Mother : The Effect of Early Life Cigarette Taxes on Asthma and Inequality

Decades of research have established a link between early life smoke exposure and health at birth. Yet, only a paucity of research has credibly examined outcomes later in childhood. I exploit exogenous variation in state-level cigarette taxes to estimate the causal impact of early life cigarette taxes on multiple measures of children's well-being such as asthma, asthma severity, and health status. Overall, I find an economically and statistically significant reduction in asthma prevalence. A one dollar increase in state excise taxes reduces the prevalence of asthma by 1.7 percentage points with larger reductions for non-white children and children from poorer households