MALE SMOKERS MORE LIKELY TO MARRY LESS EDUCATED WOMEN
Men who smoke are more likely to marry women who are less educated than they are. This is because their smoking habit is seen as unattractive and they are therefore more likely to be able to attract women with a lower socio-economic status.
That is one of the findings from a unique study of the effects of smoking on marriage by Sonia Oreffice and colleagues, to be presented at the Royal Economic Society’s 2012 annual conference.
The study looks at data on the smoking habits of couples in the US taken from a nationally representative sample. It argues that smoking is seen by non-smokers as an unattractive trait and that smokers will have to make compromises if they want to attract non-smokers. One way they do this is to marry someone who is less well educated – something that is generally considered less attractive. The research finds that:
· Because more men smoke than women, there are fewer couples where the woman smokes and not the man than the other way round.
· This means that men who smoke are more likely to have to make compromises. Non-smoking wives with smoking husbands have on average 0.14 fewer years of completed education than those with non-smoking husbands.
· The deterrent effect of smoking only counts for non-smokers. Yet surprisingly, smoking husbands who marry smoking wives have on average 0.16 more years of completed education than those with non-smoking wives.
Despite changes in social attitudes and the law, smoking remains prevalent especially among young people. In the US in 2007, 27% of white men and 22% of white women aged 18-24 were smokers.
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These researchers’ general interest lies in understanding the patterns governing the formation of couples and families, and how these patterns depend on spouses’ characteristics.
This specific analysis addresses the consequences and penalties of smoking in the marriage market, emphasising the interplay of smoking status (a potential handicap), and more standard indicators of socio-economic status (such as wealth, education, etc.). This contrasts with most previous studies, which mainly focus on the intergenerational transmission of smoking habits between parents and children rather than on family formation.
The negative impact of smoking on the health of smokers and their families has been clearly established. In particular, the health of a non-smoker who marries a smoker is adversely affected by the spouse’s tobacco consumption, although no such effect exists if the person is a smoker him or herself.
This suggests that in the formation of couples, smoking is perceived as a personal defect by some but not all potential spouses. With equal smoking prevalence between genders, this would typically lead to a segregated market, in which people marry spouses with similar smoking habits.
But the US (and many other developed countries) exhibits a clear gender asymmetry in smoking prevalence: there are more smoking men than smoking women, and the gap is maintained across education levels and over time. In 2007, for example, 27% of white men aged 18-24 were smokers, against 22% of white women.
The study first analyses the resulting interplay between socio-economic status and smoking habits from a theoretical perspective. In particular, it predicts that ‘mixed’ couples in which the wife smokes while the husband does not should be much rarer than those in which he smokes and she does not.
In addition, and everything equal, non-smoking wives married to smoking men should be on average of lower socio-economic quality (less educated) than those married to non-smokers, whereas (and perhaps more surprisingly) smoking men who marry smoking women are of higher socio-economic quality (more educated) than those who marry non-smokers.
Using the CPS data and its Tobacco Use Supplements for the years 1996 to 2007 for both spouses (nationally representative data of the US population), and proxying socio-economic status by educational attainment, the study finds that these predictions are satisfied.
There are fewer ‘mixed’ couples where the wife smokes than vice-versa, and matching is assortative on education among couples with identical smoking habits. Among non-smoking wives those with smoking husbands have on average 0.14 fewer years of completed education than those with non-smoking husbands.
Finally, and somewhat counter-intuitively, among smoking husbands those who marry smoking wives have on average 0.16 more years of completed education than those with non-smoking wives.
The researchers consider a situation in which people differ in their socio-economic quality and smoking habits. When looking for a mate, non-smoking individuals perceive the smoking habit of a potential partner as a negative trait. But this potential handicap disappears if their spouse is also a smoker.
ENDS
‘Matching with a Handicap: The Case of Smoking in the Marriage Market’ by Pierre-André Chiappori, Sonia Oreffice, and Climent Quintana-Domeque
Contact:
Sonia Oreffice
+34 636 125 862