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Nunziata L, Toffolutti V. "Thou Shalt not Smoke": Religion and smoking in a natural experiment of history. SSM Popul Health. 2019;8:100412doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100412.
Nunziata, L., & Toffolutti, V. (2019). "Thou Shalt not Smoke": Religion and smoking in a natural experiment of history. SSM - population health, 8100412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100412
Nunziata, Luca, and Toffolutti, Veronica. ""Thou Shalt not Smoke": Religion and smoking in a natural experiment of history." SSM - population health vol. 8 (2019): 100412. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100412
Nunziata L, Toffolutti V. "Thou Shalt not Smoke": Religion and smoking in a natural experiment of history. SSM Popul Health. 2019 May 23;8:100412. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100412. eCollection 2019 Aug. PMID: 31338409; PMCID: PMC6626118.
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SSM Popul Health. 2019 May 23;8:100412. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100412. eCollection 2019 Aug.

"Thou Shalt not Smoke": Religion and smoking in a natural experiment of history.

SSM - population health

Luca Nunziata, Veronica Toffolutti

Affiliations

  1. University of Padua, Italy.
  2. IZA, Bonn, Germany.
  3. Bocconi University, Italy.

PMID: 31338409 PMCID: PMC6626118 DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100412

Abstract

We provide a new identification strategy to analyse the implications of religious affiliation on unhealthful behaviour by focusing on the link between religiousness and smoking. Our quasi-experimental research design exploits the exogenous dramatic fall in religious affiliation that took place in East Germany after the post-war separation. Our conditional difference-in-differences estimates on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) for the period 1998-2006 indicate that individuals who are not affiliated to any religious denomination are consistently 13-19 percentage points more likely to smoke than are religious individuals. We interpret our results on the basis of a restraining effect of religious ethics on unhealthy behaviour, confirming the view that religion is a far-reaching vehicle for the enforcement of social norms.

Keywords: Atheism; Culture; German separation; Religion; Smoking

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