Socio-Economic Determents of Smoking and Drinking in China: Urban-Rural Difference*

Despite numerous side effects associated with smoking and drinking, the appealand conditional demand of themin China are still in the ascendant. Though a heavy volume of literature has been found with respect to this issue, few empirical studies have been done on smoking and drinking in China. We attempt to bridge this gap by estimating two-part models of smoking and liquor drinking demand of urban and rural resident separately, wherein a large individual-level dataset from China Health and Nutrition Survey for years 1993,1997,2000, 2004, 2006 and 2009 is employed.Results show that education effects are a deterrent to both smoking and liquor drinking. The effects of education on smoking propensity of urban residents are larger than that of rural residents. It has been found that the deterrent effects of education on smoking have been steadily enhancing since 1993, in contrast to those of income increasewhich have appeared inconsistent. Income increase has reduced the probability of smoking and the deterrent effects have enhanced since 1993, but it has de facto uplift the conditional cigarette consumption level. Additionally, income has positive impacts on rural resident’s liquor drinking propensity but wields slightly negative impacts on that of urban residents. The paper concluded that education can play an appreciable role in Chinese public policy designing in control of smoking and liquor drinking. The progress of urbanization in China also plays a role in reducing residents’ unhealthy consuming behavior.