Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2007 Dec 1;86(2):445-466.
doi: 10.1093/sf/86.2.445.

National Income, Inequality and Global Patterns of Cigarette Use

Fred Pampel  1
Affiliations

National Income, Inequality and Global Patterns of Cigarette Use

Fred Pampel. Soc Forces. .

Abstract

Declining tobacco use in high-income nations and rising tobacco use in low- and middle-income nations raises questions about the sources of worldwide patterns of smoking. Theories posit a curvilinear influence of national income based on the balance of affordability and health-cost effects. In addition, however, economic inequality, gender inequality and government policies may moderate the rise and fall in smoking prevalence with national income. This study tests these arguments using aggregate data for 145 nations and measures of smoking prevalence circa 2000. The results show nonlinear effects of national income for males that take the form of an inverted U, but show linear effects for females. They also show non-additive effects of economic inequality for males that moderate both the rise and decline of smoking with national income and non-additive effects of gender equality for females that moderate the positive effect of national income.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Predicted Percentage Male and Female Smokers by GDP
Figure 2
Figure 2
Predicted Percentage Male Smokers by Income Inequality and GDP
Figure 3
Figure 3
Predicted Percentage Female Smokers by Gender Inequality and GDP
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bobak Martin, Jha Prabhat, Nguyen Son, Jarvis Martin. Poverty and Smoking. In: Jha Prabhat, Chaloupka Frank J., editors. Tobacco Control in Developing Countries. Oxford University Press; 2000. pp. 41–61.
    1. Casas-Zamora Juan Antonio, Ibrahim Said A. Confronting Health Inequity: The Global Dimension. American Journal of Public Health. 2004;94(12):2055–58. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chaloupka Frank J, Taurus John A, Grossman Michael. The Economics of Addiction. In: Jha Prabhat, Chaloupka Frank J., editors. Tobacco Control in Developing Countries. Oxford University Press; 2000. pp. 107–29.
    1. Cutler David M, Glaeser Edward L. Working Paper. National Bureau of Economic Research; Cambridge, Mass: 2006. [Accessed in July 2007]. Why Do Europeans Smoke More than Americans? p. 12124. at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w12124.
    1. Deininger Klaus, Squire Lyn. A New Data Set Measuring Income Inequality. The World Bank Economic Review. 1996;10(3):565–91.