Smoking Habits: Like Father, Like Son, Like Mother, Like Daughter

• Authors: Maria Loureiro, Anna Sanz-de-Galdeano and Daniela Vuri
• BSE Working Paper: 402 | March 2026
• Keywords: Instrumental Variables, youth smoking, intergenerational habit transmission, multivariate probit
• JEL codes: I1, C5

We use instrumental variable methods to investigate whether the impact of parental smoking habits on their children’s smoking decisions is a causal one. We find evidence of same-sex role models in two-parent households: mothers play a crucial role in determining their daughters’ smoking decisions, while fathers’ smoking habits are primarily imitated by their sons.