Do smoking bans improve infant health? Evidence from U.S. Births: 1995-2009

摘要

Among the newest policies developed to reduce smoking and improve health are smoking bans. Using individual-level birth certificate data from the Natality Detail File between 1995 and 2009 and data on county smoking bans, we investigate the impacts of smoking bans on infant birth weight, length of gestation, 5-minute APGAR score, and cleft palate. Smoking bans are not associated with significant improvements in infant health. Instead, we find small increases in low birth weight and very low birth weight in infants born to young mothers who live in counties that adopted at least one type of ban during the study period.