Will a Decline in Smoking Increase Body Weights? Evidence from Belarus

Abstract

Using population samples from Belarus for the years 1996-2008, we estimate the effect of the number of cigarettes smoked per day on body mass index (BMI) and on the probability of being overweight or obese and stratify the estimates by the length of the smoking career. We instrument cigarette smoking with cigarette prices and group-specific smoking rates. We find a significant negative effect of smoking on BMI and the probability of overweight and obesity across various specifications. The negative effect of smoking increases in magnitude at the higher percentiles of the BMI distribution and with the length of smoking career.