Econometric Analysis of Youth Smoking Behavior in Turkey

Abstract

The report is organized as follows. The information about the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) is provided in the first part. The second part gives some descriptive statistics about the prevalence rate of students and their consumption based on several characteristics observed in the survey. The third part presents the empirical model and the variables used to estimate the probability of smoke and the quantity consumed. The fourth part presents the empirical results obtained from the analysis. The last part summarizes the results and concludes the paper with some policy recommendations. A total of 202 schools and 15,957 students were surveyed in the analysis. The GYTS questionnaire asks about the general characteristics of students, such as age, grade, sex, income level, region, and their family whether their parents work, and their education levels. Other questions ask about smoking habits, accessibility, smoking habits of their family members and friends; as well as exposure to pro / anti cigarette promotions and their thoughts about tobacco control measures. The results of this study have some important policy implications. First, the results indicate that price is an important factor that affects students' probability of smoke significantly. Second, it is also found that the knowledge about the harmful effects of smoking decreases both the probability of smoking and tobacco consumption significantly. Third, those students that have difficulty in getting tobacco products from markets are less likely to smoke and they smoke less cigarettes. Fourth, if smoking is not allowed inside the school building, the students have a lower probability of smoking.