RUHR ECONOMIC PAPERS Does New Health Information Aff ect Health Behavior ?

This paper investigates whether new health information aff ects smoking behavior. Interpreting three distinct categories of health events as diff erent information, the paper also tests whether behavioral change depends on the type of information received. Based on retrospectively reported data on smoking behavior from the Swiss Household Panel, a linear probability model is applied to estimate the eff ects of three diff erent health events on the decision to quit smoking. The empirical results yield robust evidence that smokers respond diff erently to health events that are due to diff erent causes. Suff ering from physical health problems increases the inclination to stop smoking, the opposite holds true for mental disorders, while accidents do not aff ect health behavior at all. Analyses of eff ect heterogeneity further reveal that the same type of information aff ects various subgroups of the population diff erently. JEL Classifi cation: C23, I10