Issn 1045-6333 Cigarette Smokers as Job Risk Takers

Using a large data set, the authors find that smokers select riskier jobs, but receive less hazard pay than do nonsmokers. Based on estimates using the BLS rate of lost workdays, nonsmokers have an implicit value per injury of $39,017 as compared to $20,469 for smokers. Smokers are injured more often controlling for the job’s objective risk and are paid less after such injuries. This evidence is consistent with smokers facing a flatter market offer curve. Smokers and nonsmokers, in effect, are segmented labor market groups with different preferences and different market offer curves. John F. Cogan, Jr. Professor of Law and Economics, Director of the Program on Empirical Legal Studies, Harvard Law School. Lecturer, Harvard Law School.