Cigarette smoking and poverty in China

Drawing on the 1998 China national health services survey data, this study estimated the poverty impact of two smoking-related expenses: excessive medical spending attributable to smoking and direct spending on cigarettes. The excessive medical spending attributable to smoking is estimated using a regression model of medical expenditure with smoking status (current smoker, former smoker, never smoker) as part of the explanatory variables, controlling for peopleʹs demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The poverty impact is measured by the changes in the poverty head count, after smoking-related expenses are subtracted from income.