Search results

This study aims to investigate the effect of smoking on the income of workers in the Brazilian labor market.

Using data from the 2019 National Health Survey (PNS), we initially address the sample selection bias concerning labor market participation by using the Heckman (1979) method. Subsequently, the decomposition of income between smokers and nonsmokers is analyzed, both on average and across the earnings distribution by employing the procedure of Firpo, Fortin, and Lemieux (2009) - FFL decomposition. Ñopo (2008) technique is also used to obtain more robust estimates.

Overall, the findings indicate an income penalty for smokers in the Brazilian labor market across both the average and all quantiles of the income distribution. Notably, the most significant differentials and income penalties against smokers are observed in the lower quantiles of the distribution. Conversely, in the higher quantiles, there is a tendency toward a smaller magnitude of this gap, with limited evidence of an income penalty associated with this habit.

This study presents an important limitation, which refers to a restriction of the PNS (2019), which does not provide information about some subjective factors that also tend to influence the levels of labor income, such as the level of effort and specific ability of each worker, whether smokers or not, something that could also, in some way, be related to some latent individual predisposition that would influence the choice of smoking.

The relevance of the present study is clear in identifying the heterogeneity of the income gap in favor of nonsmokers, as in the lower quantiles there was a greater magnitude of differentials against smokers and a greater incidence of unexplained penalties in the income of these workers, while in the higher quantiles, there was low magnitude of the differentials and little evidence that there is a penalty in earnings since the worker is a smoker.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of the firms' external environment on their export intensity. More specifically, it assesses whether domestic market characteristics such as domestic demand and general export environment related to tradability across borders affect firms' export intensity.

The authors use a sample of 29,266 firms from nine European countries, for the period of 2010–2016, and test several estimation methods (random effects models, Tobit models, and Heckman's selection models).

Results show that external factors such as domestic demand and ease of trade across borders are important determinants of firms' export intensity. Moreover, results reveal that firm's internal characteristics such as age, size and productivity also play an import role.

Studies about the influence of the firms' external environment on firms' export intensity are scarce because most of them are confined to a single country context. In this way, the present study contributes to the body of knowledge on the influence that external factors can have on firms' export performance by analyzing firms from nine European countries, which has important policy implications.