The effects of public place smoking restrictions on individual smoking behaviour in Australia

While smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death in Australia, existing policy options, except for bans on smoking at public places, seem to have limited scope for expansion. Eight new smoking bans, introduced in six different Australian jurisdictions over 2003 and 2005, provide a basis for evaluation. The analysis extends a popular two-part model of smoking behaviour by GLM and correlated random effect models. Difference-in-differences estimation using 4 waves of the Household, Income, Labour Dynamics Australia Survey indicates that neither the probability nor the intensity of smoking was affected. The results are robust to alternative specifications and estimation methods. * This research was partially supported by a NHMRC Program Grant No. 254202.