Table 1

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

Dependent variable: smoked at ages 17 to 60
Birth Cohort1910–191920–291930–391940–491950–591960–691970–79
At age 17
College−0.146***
[0.0119]
−0.151***
[0.0087]
−0.179***
[0.0078]
−0.191***
[0.0059]
0.182***
[0.0048]
−0.181***
[0.0052]
−0.178***
[0.0116]
Observations8,92914,72815,84722,32627,82919,4054,374
At age 25
College−0.095***
[0.0142]
−0.105***
[0.0096]
−0.149***
[0.0087]
−0.178***
[0.0067]
0.209***
[0.0057]
−0.227***
[0.0062]
−0.191***
[0.0143]
Observations8,92914,72815,84722,32627,82919,4054,374
At age 30
College−0.092***
[0.0141]
−0.098***
[0.0096]
−0.149***
[0.0117]
−0.189***
[0.0066]
0.210***
[0.0059]
−0.240***
[0.0078]
Observations8,92914,72815,84722,20224,28112,879
At age 35
College−0.105***
[0.0141]
−0.107***
[0.0097]
−0.156***
[0.0087]
−0.189***
[0.0068]
0.212***
[0.0066]
−0.260***
[0.0123]
Observations8,92914,72815,84720,13118,9055,277
At age 40
College−0.108***
[0.0141]
−0.111***
[0.0098]
−0.160***
[0.0086]
−0.183***
[0.0071]
0.229***
[0.0083]
Observations8,92914,72815,75817,34411,995
At age 45
College−0.119***
[0.0140]
−0.124***
[0.0096]
−0.160***
[0.0087]
−0.178***
[0.0081]
0.232***
[0.0138]
Observations8,92914,72814,27213,2154,461
At age 50
College−0.108***
[0.0137]
−0.126***
[0.0094]
−0.157***
[0.0087]
−0.190***
[0.0102]
Observations8,92914,65212,2598,381
At age 55
College−0.111***
[0.0132]
−0.118***
[0.0093]
0.151***
[0.0094]
−0.185***
[0.0171]
Observations8,92913,1569,5852,995
At age 60
College−0.109***
[0.0123]
−0.105***
[0.0090]
0.147***
[0.0113]
Observations8,85711,0846,191
  • 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 his 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.