Effect of Smoking and Other Economic Variables on Wages in the Euro Area

Abstract

The smoking effects on wages has been examined in this work using different econometric methodologies with the use of European Community Household Panel (ECHP) datasets. We employ econometric tools like Instrumental Variable technique, Heckman correction factor, Endogenous Switching and Matching estimates. The initial results from regression estimates (OLS and IV methods) revealed that the wage gap between smokers and non-smokers ranges between 1% to 22.7%. Moreover, endogenous switching and matching estimator also showed a negative average treatment effects of approximately 47% and 4.3% to 6.9% respectively. Thus smokers observed less wage effects are explained in part by real effects on their health status and a measure of unobserved preferences.