Side-effects of anti-smoking policies on health behaviors. Evidence from the US.

In this paper, we use US data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to examine unintended side-effects related to smoking bans, and cigarette prices, and taxes on health behaviors. Our findings show that smoking bans not only had positive direct effects on smoking but also induced healthier lifestyles: the bans significantly reduced drinking participation and consumption and promoted physical activity, with heterogeneous effects in certain socio-economic groups, whereas cigarette prices and taxes affected the health behaviors of disadvantaged population groups. Robustness analyses show that results do not change when we consider ever-smokers or control for unobservable state-specific time-varying confounders.