• Hielke Buddelmeyer, Roger Wilkins

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09 February 2006Hielke Buddelmeyer and Roger Wilkins describe the dynamics of smoking behaviour in Australia, using
HILDA data to track individuals’ smoking behaviour over the period 2001 to 2003, during which time smoking ban initiatives in Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory came into effect. They exploit this variation over time and across states to assess the impact of tougher smoking regulations.


Their findings indicate that smoking is strongly correlated with education, gender, early life experiences, alcohol consumption, income, and other characteristics. Conditional on being a smoker in the previous period, they find that the single biggest predictor of quitting is pregnancy. Few other characteristics are able to explain who quits. Conditional on not smoking in the previous period, people who drink daily or weekly and couples who separated or divorced between the previous and current periods are most likely to take up smoking. The effect of the introduction of smoking ban regulations on individuals' smoking behaviour is generally in the expected direction, albeit not statistically significant for most types of individual. However, they find a significant ‘rebellion’ effect among 18 to 24 year old smokers, with the introduction of smoking bans found to increase the likelihood that they continue to smoke.