scholarly journals DEMOGRAPHICS, KNOWLEDGE AND SMOKING: AN INSTRUMENTAL VARIABLE APPROACH

Author(s):  
Yong Kang Cheah ◽  
Kuang Hock Lim ◽  
Muhammad Fadhli Mohd Yusoff

Smoking is one of the main factors that causes various diseases. The objective of the present study is to investigate factors determining smoking behaviour among adults. The present study used instrumental variable (IV) regressions to estimate the effects of demographic and knowledge factors on participation decision and amount decision of smoking. Nationally representative data of a developing country (Malaysia) was used. Contrary to popular belief, knowledge was found to be positively associated with the propensity to smoke, as well as the amount of smoking. Age, gender, wealth index, educational level, ethnicity, marital status and house locality were significantly associated with smoking. Males were more likely to smoke and smoked more than females. Educational level reduced the likelihood and amount of smoking. Malays and married individuals were less likely to smoke than non-Malays and unmarried individuals. Urban dwellers smoked more cigarette relative to rural dwellers. In terms of policy implication, it is suggested that intervention measures directed toward reducing the prevalence of smoking should not pay too much attention to improving the knowledge of health effects of smoking among Malaysian adults. Anti-smoking policies must be designed carefully by taking into account of the demographic factors which are correlated with the likelihood and amount of smoking. The present study is the first of its kind that includes knowledge as a separate variable for analyses and uses IV regressions to analyse participation decision and amount decision of smoking.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederik Juhl Jørgensen ◽  
Marie Fly Lindholt ◽  
Alexander Bor ◽  
Michael Bang Petersen

Background: Public use of face masks has been widely adopted to halter the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic but a key concern has been whether the effectiveness of face mask use is limited due to elicitation of false feelings of security that decrease the observance of other protective behaviors, so-called risk-compensation. Methods: We take an instrumental variable approach to assess whether public use of face masks elicit risk-compensation by decreasing attention to distancing and hygiene. In particular, we use the onset of a mandatory policy to wear face masks in public transportation in Denmark as an instrument for actual face mask use in daily nationally representative surveys (N = 32,504). Findings: The use of face mask does not influence people's attention to hygiene or the number of close contacts but does decrease people's attention to distancing and, specifically, their attention to avoiding places and activities involving many people.Interpretations: Face masks elicit a narrow form of risk-compensation such that people are more likely to seek out those specific settings in which face masks offer additional protection. To increase the effectiveness of face masks, the onset of mandatory face mask policies should be combined with clear health communication to counter this form of risk-compensation. Funding: This research was funded by the Carlsberg Foundation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 148-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Kang Cheah ◽  
Chien Huey Teh ◽  
Hock Kuang Lim

Background: The proportion of people exposed to second-hand smoke increases dramatically with a sharp increase in the prevalence of smoking. It is expected that awareness of the effect of second-hand smoke plays an important role in curbing smoking. Objectives: The objective of this study is to examine factors affecting awareness of second-hand smoke in Malaysia. Methods: Nationally representative data, covering a large sample size (4153 respondents) and collected based on multistage sampling, are used. Multiple logistic regression is employed to analyse the effects of demographic and lifestyle variables on the likelihood of being aware of second-hand smoke. Results: Results show that older people are less likely to be aware of second-hand smoke than youngsters and that less-educated individuals are less likely to be aware of second-hand smoke than well-educated individuals. Significant relationships are found between second-hand smoke awareness and wealth index, ethnicity and smoking behaviour. Conclusion: Demographic profiles should be considered when drawing up policies aimed at improving awareness of second-hand smoke among adults. The government needs to focus more on older people, wealthy individuals, less-educated individuals, Chinese individuals and smokers if a successful policy is to be implemented.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-460
Author(s):  
Mohd Imran Khan ◽  
Valatheeswaran C.

The inflow of international remittances to Kerala has been increasing over the last three decades. It has increased the income of recipient households and enabled them to spend more on human capital investment. Using data from the Kerala Migration Survey-2010, this study analyses the impact of remittance receipts on the households’ healthcare expenditure and access to private healthcare in Kerala. This study employs an instrumental variable approach to account for the endogeneity of remittances receipts. The empirical results show that remittance income has a positive and significant impact on households’ healthcare expenditure and access to private healthcare services. After disaggregating the sample into different heterogeneous groups, this study found that remittances have a greater effect on lower-income households and Other Backward Class (OBC) households but not Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) households, which remain excluded from reaping the benefit of international migration and remittances.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Sophie Hacquin ◽  
Sacha Altay ◽  
Emma de Araujo ◽  
Coralie Chevallier ◽  
Hugo Mercier

A safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine is our only hope to decisively stop the spread of the SARS-CoV-2. But a vaccine will only be fully effective if a significant share of the population agrees to get it. Five consecutive surveys of a large, nationally representative sample (N = 1000 for each wave) surveyed attitudes towards a future COVID-19 vaccine in France from May 2020 to October 2020. We found that COVID-19 vaccine refusal has steadily increased, reaching an all-time high with only 23% of participants willing to probably or certainly take a future COVID-19 vaccine in September 2020. Vaccine hesitant individuals are more likely to be women, young, less educated, to vote at the political extremes, to be dissatisfied with the government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, and to feel less at risk of COVID-19. The reasons why French people would refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine are similar to those offered for other vaccines, and these reasons are strikingly stable across gender, age and educational level. Finally, most French people declare they would not take the vaccine as soon as possible but would instead rather wait or not take it at all.


2020 ◽  
Vol 102 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-367
Author(s):  
Gerard J. van den Berg ◽  
Petyo Bonev ◽  
Enno Mammen

We develop an instrumental variable approach for identification of dynamic treatment effects on survival outcomes in the presence of dynamic selection, noncompliance, and right-censoring. The approach is nonparametric and does not require independence of observed and unobserved characteristics or separability assumptions. We propose estimation procedures and derive asymptotic properties. We apply our approach to evaluate a policy reform in which the pathway of unemployment benefits as a function of the unemployment duration is modified. Those who were unemployed at the reform date could choose between the old and the new regime. We find that the new regime has a positive average causal effect on the job finding rate.


2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 2335-2340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arne Dankers ◽  
Paul M.J. Van den Hof ◽  
Xavier Bombois ◽  
Peter S.C. Heuberger

CAUCHY ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Alfensi Faruk ◽  
Endro Setyo Cahyono ◽  
Ning Eliyati

<p class="Abstract">The first birth interval is one of the indicators of women’s fertility rate. Because in most cases the first birth interval contains censored observations, the only appropriate statistical method to handle such data is survival analysis. The main objective of this study is to analyze several socioeconomic and demographic factors that affect the first birth interval in Indonesia using the univariate and multivariate survival analysis, that is Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression model, respectively. The sample is obtained from 2012 Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS) and consists of 28242 ever married women aged 15-49 at the time of interview. The results show that age at the first birth, women's educational level, husband’s educational level, contraceptive knowledge, wealth index, and employment status are the significant factors affecting the first birth interval in Indonesia.</p>


Author(s):  
Murat Anıl Mercan ◽  
Hande Barlin

Social scientists have been intrigued by the relationship between generations based on different characteristics. Economists, has been especially interested in measuring intergenerational income elasticity, which looks at the relationship of parents and that of their children when they become adults and gives clue on trends of income inequality. Most of the literature concentrates on the experiences of developed countries and measurement issues. Nevertheless, new studies concerning intergenerational income elasticity is being undertaken in developing countries as the data become increasingly available for these countries. In this vein, there is only one previous study that investigates intergenerational income elasticity for Turkey. Mercan (2012) finds that intergenerational income elasticity is around 0.1 in Turkey, which depicts Turkey as a highly mobile country meaning that children of poor parents have a higher likelihood to have a better income status. However, his study does not depend on a longitudinal dataset, which might make Mercan’s (2012) estimate biased. Following Solon (1992) in using OLS for lower bound and instrumental variable (IV) for upper bound, this study puts forth a new estimate, which relies on a nationally representative and longitudinal dataset for Turkey. The study's estimate for intergenerational income elasticity varies between 0.3 and 0.6, which is much higher than the result of Mercan (2012), indicating that Turkey is a less mobile country than previously foreseen.


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