Preliminary draft - This paper uses a discrete choice approach to investigate factors influencing starting and quitting smoking, in particular the role of tobacco taxes. Standard probit analysis is applied to both starting and quitting. Tobacco taxes appear to exert a negative influence over...

This paper uses duration analysis to investigate factors influencing starting and quitting smoking, in particular the role of tobacco taxes. Applying a variety of parametric duration models, including a split population model, to a sample of Irish women, it finds mixed results regarding the...

This Paper uses a unique dataset collected among inhabitants of Amsterdam, to study the dynamics in the consumption of cannabis and cocaine. If people start using these drugs they are most likely to do so at age 18-20 for cannabis and age 20-25 for cocaine. An analysis of the starting rates...

This Paper studies the wage effects of the use of alcohol and tobacco. The analysis based on a recent survey in the Netherlands shows that for males the use of tobacco has a negative wage effect of about 10% while the use of alcohol has a positive wage effect of about the same size. Smoking and...

Evidence from most developing countries suggest that parents have a preference for sons over daughters. This is know as son preference. This paper uses individual level unit record data to test the son preference hypothesis in South Africa. We use an accelerated hazard model to estimate the...

Evidence from most developing countries suggests that parents have a preference for sons over daughters. This is known as son preference. This paper uses individual level unit record data to test the son preference hypothesis in South Africa. We use an accelerated hazard model to estimate the...

This paper uses a dataset collected among inhabitants of Amsterdam, to study the employment effects of the use of cannabis and cocaine. For females no negative effects of drug use on the employment rate are found. For males there is a negative relationship between past cannabis and cocaine use...

Factors impacting the initiation and termination of smoking, using Cox's proportional hazard model as the econometric tool, on the basis of RLMS and Goskomstat data on tobacco prices, are being investigated in this paper. The model to explain the amount of consumed cigarettes and the composite...

We study factors impacting the initiation and termination of smoking as well as its "heaviness" on the basis of RLMS data. An asymmetric influence of cigarette prices is revealed, and an addictive character of tobacco consumption is confirmed. We find that it is possible to reduce smoking by...

Despite the country's policies and programs towards universal health care, health is not improving as well as expected, which suggests that households still face significant barriers to their choice of and access to health care, and their timing of use of health services. Using a nationally...