Smoking Inequality across Genders and Socioeconomic Classes. Evidence from Longitudinal Italian Data

There has been a dearth of literature on smoking inequalities, in spite of its contribution to health inequalities. We exploit longitudinal Italian individual-level data to identify the main sociodemographic characteristics that determine smoking inequalities. We use the Erreygers Concentration Index to identify in which groups smoking is relatively more prevalent. We find that, among men, pro-poor prevalence is driven by members of the lower socio-economic classes, while we observe the opposite for women. We encourage policymakers to address the issue of smoking inequalities, which the current policies have largely disregarded.