Smoking as a bad habit: a behavioral economics perspective

Tobacco consumption is a problem of both health and economic interest nowadays. According to recent studies conducted by the European Commission approximate 700,000 deaths per year are caused by smoking. For this reason, the European Commission frequently conducts a survey in order to monitor the attitude towards tobacco addiction. Smoking addiction changes due to different factors such as budget, time or entourage. The evolution in time of these factors and the consumers’ preferences is studied using behavioral economics based on a small group of respondents. Through a survey, over 500 persons were asked to choose their preference for cigarettes characteristics. We employ correspondence analysis using combinations of age, type of cigarette, number of cigarettes smoked per day and nicotine concertation to see the type of responses the consumers’ have according to their habit. Moreover, we made a 5 persons selection from the initial group and we observed their behavior for 9 months period of time. The consumers were asked to classify a set of packages according to their preferences and we applied conjoint analysis in order to determine how or if the initial preferences change. Furthermore, we explain the changes in behavior by taking into account the nowadays global impetus towards a healthier lifestyle. The results provided allow to emphasize the role of a strong analysis for each single target consumer’s behavior as this is one of the main roles of Behavioral Economics.