Cigarettes and Mobile Phones: are they complementary or substitutable products?

Abstract

This article aims to assess the hypothesis of Charlton & Bates about a negative correlation between cigarette smoking and mobile phone ownership among adolescents. This hypothesis is discussed and tested by using data from a national survey conducted in France in 2000 (n = 8414; age 17). The results show that, in France, owning a mobile phone is positively correlated with smoking, and this relationship remains significant once confounding factors are controlled. Thus, cigarette smoking and mobile phone ownership could turn out to be complementary rather than substitutable goods or could be considered as two characteristics of the same lifestyle.