Eugenio Zucchelli

Do Public Smoking Bans have an Impact on Active Smoking? Evidence from the UK

The literature on the effects of public smoking bans on smoking behaviour presents conflicting results and there is limited evidence on their impact on active smoking. This paper evaluates the impact of smoking bans on active smoking using data from the British Household Panel Survey and exploiting the policy experiment provided by the differential timing of the introduction of the bans in Scotland and England. We assess the short-term impact of the smoking bans by employing a series of flexible difference-in-differences fixed effects panel data models. We find that the introduction of the public smoking bans in England and Scotland had limited short-run effects on both smoking prevalence and the total level of smoking. Although we identify significant differences in trends in smoking consumption across the survey period by population sub-groups, we find insufficient evidence to conclude that these were affected by the introduction of the smoking bans. These results challenge those found in the public health literature but are in line with the most recent strand of economic literature indicating that there is no firm evidence on the effects of smoking bans on smoking.

Ill-Health and Transitions to Part-Time Work and Self-Employment Among Older Workers

This paper employs a dynamic multinomial choice framework to provide new evidence on the effect of health on labour market transitions among older individuals. We consider retirement as a multi-state process and examine the effects of ill-health and health shocks on mobility between full-time employment, part-time employment, self-employment and inactivity. In order to disentangle the roles of unobserved individual heterogeneity and true state dependence, we estimate dynamic panel multinomial logit models with random effects, assuming a first order Markov process and accounting for the initial conditions problem. We also account for potential measurement error in the self-assessed health status by building a latent health stock model and employing measures of health shocks. Using data from the first nine waves of the (2001 - 2009) Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, we find that both ill-health and health shocks greatly increase the probability of leaving full-time employment towards inactivity. We also find evidence of health-driven part-time and selfemployment paths into inactivity.

The Impact of Public Smoking Bans on Well-Being Externalities: Evidence From A Natural Experiment

Recent studies on the effects of anti-smoking policies on subjective well-being present mixed results and focus mainly on smokers. We contribute to the literature by exploiting the policy experiment provided by the UK public smoking bans and evaluating the impact of smoking bans on the subjective well-being of smokers, non-smokers and couples of different types of smokers. We employ matching techniques combined with flexible difference-in-differences fixed effects panel data models on data from the British Household Panel Survey. We find that the UK public smoking bans appear to have a statistically significant short-term positive impact on the well-being of married individuals, especially among couples with dependent children. These effects appear to be substantial in size, robust to alternative specifications and may be driven by positive externalities due to parental altruism.

Religious Attitudes and Home Bias: Theory and New Evidence from Primary Data

This paper examines the relationship between religion and home bias. A theoretical framework is proposed suggesting that countries may show a certain degree of religion-enhanced international altruism associated with a lower home bias. These predictions are investigated empirically using original individual-level data from a survey on religious attitudes and home bias that was designed and collected in 15 countries. Contrary to previous evidence, the empirical investigation suggests that religious denominations may not play an important role in determining home bias. The findings partly corroborate the hypothesis that an open and tolerant attitude towards religion may enhance trust and altruism and, hence, may have a pro-trade effect by lowering home bias. It is concluded that models investigating the relationship between religion and home bias should incorporate different aspects of religion beyond affiliations and should consider different dimensions of home bias.

Uncontrolled diabetes and health care utilisation : panel data evidence from Spain

Despite size and relevance of uncontrolled diabetes, robust evidence on its effects on health care utilisation is very limited, especially among European countries. We employed longitudinal administrative data from Spain (2004–2010) to explore the relationship between uncontrolled type 2 diabetes and health care utilisation. We used a biomarker (glycated haemoglobin, HbA1c) to detect the presence of uncontrolled diabetes and explore its effects on both primary and secondary health care. We estimated a range of panel count data models, including negative binomials with random effects, dynamic and hurdle specifications to account for unobserved heterogeneity, previous utilisation and selection. We found uncontrolled diabetes in between 27 and 30% of patients of both genders. Our estimates suggested that although women appeared to systematically consume more health care compared to men, their consumption levels did not seem to be influenced by uncontrolled diabetes. Conversely, among men uncontrolled diabetes increased the average number of GP visits per year by between 3 and 3.4%, specialist visits by 5.3–6.1%, depending on specifications, and also extended annual hospital length of stay by 15%. We also found some evidence of heterogeneity in utilisation based on the level of uncontrolled diabetes among male individuals. Overall, our results suggested the need for different diabetes management plans depending on gender and levels of glycaemic control.

The impact of the UK National Minimum Wage on mental health

Despite an emerging literature, there is still sparse and mixed evidence on the wider societal benefits of Minimum Wage policies, including their effects on mental health. Furthermore, causal evidence on the relationship between earnings and mental health is limited. We focus on low-wage earners, who are at higher risk of psychological distress, and exploit the quasi-experiment provided by the introduction of the UK National Minimum Wage (NMW) to identify the causal impact of wage increases on mental health. We employ difference-in-differences models and find that the introduction of the UK NMW had no effect on mental health. Our estimates do not appear to support earlier findings which indicate that minimum wages affect mental health of low-wage earners. A series of robustness checks accounting for measurement error, as well as treatment and control group composition, confirm our main results. Overall, our findings suggest that policies aimed at improving the mental health of low-wage earners should either consider the non-wage characteristics of employment or potentially larger wage increases.