The Effect of Local Smoking Ordinances on Fetal Development: Evidence from California

Smoking restrictions in workplaces have been shown to reduce the demand for cigarettes but little is known of their downstream effect on individual well-being. In this paper, I examine the impact of local workplace smoking restrictions on birth outcomes. It is known that maternal and passive smoking during pregnancy reduce birth weight and that low birth weight infants are more likely to experience acute health and developmental difficulties that inflict significant costs on society. I use variation in the timing of local smoking ordinances in California between 1988 and 2004 in combination with a large sample of birth certificates to identify the effects of these ordinances on birth weight. The results indicate that the state workplace ordinance decreases the average city birth weight. While the results show no effect on birth outcomes from local ordinances and only small effects from the state ordinance, the point estimates consistently suggest the opposite of what is expected. This detrimental outcome, while seemingly counterintuitive, supports Adda and Cornaglia (2006b). •