Labor market impacts of smoking regulations on the restaurant industry

This paper examines the impact of smoking regulations on restaurant employment in West Virginia, a state with a high rate of smoking prevalence. Using a confidential establishment-level dataset, our results suggest that smoking bans reduced restaurant employment by between 0.7 and 1.5 workers, depending on model specification. We find that smoking restrictions have heterogeneous impacts across establishments, with the largest impacts on mid-sized establishments, defined as those with 10-29 employees. Our results also suggest that the impact of smoking restrictions was larger in counties with higher rates of smoking prevalence.