Table 2

The effect of college education on smoking behavior at different ages. Females. Cross-sectional linear regressions.

Birth Cohort	Dependent variable: smoked at ages 17 to 60
Birth Cohort	1910–19	1920–29	1930–39	1940–49	1950–59	1960–69	1970–79
At age 17
College	−0.001 [0.0073]	−0.028^*** [0.0063]	−0.044^*** [0.0064]	−0.083^*** [0.0046]	−0.116^*** [0.0040]	−0.146^*** [0.0046]	−0.127^*** [0.0098]
Observations	16,005	21,141	20,152	27,315	35,300	25,120	5,645
At age 25
College	0.022^** [0.0114]	0.019^* [0.0101]	−0.028^*** [0.0090]	−0.075^*** [0.0064]	−0.145^*** [0.0051]	−0.184^*** [0.0055]	−0.157^*** [0.0115]
Observations	16,005	21,141	20,152	27,315	35,300	25,120	5,645
At age 30
College	0.021^* [0.0118]	0.012 [0.0102]	−0.050^*** [0.0090]	−0.095^*** [0.0064]	−0.156^*** [0.0051]	−0.199^*** [0.0068]
Observations	16,005	21,141	20,152	27,179	30,817	16,579
At age 35
College	0.013 [0.0117]	−0.001 [0.0102]	−0.071^*** [0.0088]	−0.109^*** [0.0064]	−0.156^*** [0.0057]	−0.219^*** [0.0106]
Observations	16,005	21,141	20,152	24,725	23,583	6,742
At age 40
College	0.005 [0.0117]	−0.009 [0.0101]	−0.083^*** [0.0086]	−0.123^*** [0.065]	−0.169^*** [0.0072]
Observations	16,005	21,141	20,049	21,357	14,667
At age 45
College	−0.009 [0.0115]	−0.018* [0.0099]	−0.092^*** [0.0086]	−0.136^*** [0.0073]	−0.178^*** [0.0114]
Observations	16,005	21,141	18,272	16,430	5,438
At age 50
College	−0.014 [0.0113]	−0.019^** [0.0098]	−0.089^*** [0.0087]	−0.145^*** [0.0090]
Observations	16,005	21,055	15,818	10,509
	At age 55
College	−0.018^* [0.0109]	−0.025^*** [0.0097]	0.086^*** [0.0094]	−0.141^*** [0.0148]
Observations	16,005	19,294	12,513	3,823
	At age 60
College	−0.026^** [0.0103]	−0.035^*** [0.0094]	0.090^*** [0.0112]
Observations	15,913	16,769	8,152

↵Analysis from smoking histories from the 1978, 1979, 1980, 1987, 1988, 1992, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000 National Health Interview Surveys for individuals age 17 and older at the time of the survey. At age 17, the individual is assigned her future college graduation status. Smoking histories are reconstructed using the age at smoking initiation and cessation. See also Note 5. Additional controls include gender, year of birth, race, and survey year dummies. Robust standard errors in square brackets. ***, **, * denote statistical significance at the 1 percent, 5 percent, and 10 percent confidence levels, respectively.