Does a Smoking Ban Reduce Smoking? Evidence from Germany

In 2007 and 2008 the 16 German federal states introduced public smoking bans. The prime objective of the smoking bans was to reduce passive smoking. However, a welcomed side-effect of the smoking bans might have been to reduce active smoking. In this paper we investigate whether such a side-effect occurred. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), we investigate with fixed-effects models whether the introduction of smoking bans in the German states reduced the prevalence and the intensity of smoking. Our findings show no effects of public smoking bans on smoking behaviour.