This paper studies the heterogeneous effects of public policy on cigarette demand across different smoker types. I propose a structural model of demand for differentiated products that allows preferences to vary by demographic characteristics. I define consumers using a rich set of tobacco-related demographics that enables us to differentiate the effects on addicted and non-addicted individuals, among other dimensions. I estimate the model combining public surveys and scanner US data between 2001 and 2003. My paper is one of the few to document a positive and causal effect of advertising expenditure on smoking probabilities, especially among the young. Changes in prices have much stronger effects on adult-addicted individuals relative to changes in advertising. However, price restrictions also affect proportionately more young consumers. Policies that affect asymmetrically premium and discount brands will also have heterogeneous effects across addicted and non-addicted consumers. Finally, while income and age differences explain heterogeneous price responses across young and adults within a smoker type, different advertising responses are mostly driven by addiction differences.

When choosing a neighborhood, ethnic minorities must trade off co-locating with similar individuals, who will support them as one of their own, and co-locating with majority individuals, who are better placed to help improve their prospects. I present a simple model characterizing how this trade-off varies depending on the visibility of the minority and the city’s tolerance. Consistent with the theory, US data on Hispanics shows that minority individuals with roots in countries with greater European heritage — less distinguishable from US whites — are more likely to co-locate with non-Hispanic whites and that the effect is stronger in less tolerant cities.

The rise in non-tariff protectionist measures has been associated to the weakness in global trade over the last few years. We investigate the effect of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) on exports growth over the period 2009-2013 using administrative data at the fi rm-product-destination level in Spain. According to our fi ndings, non-tariff protectionist measures signifi cantly reduce exports growth at the product-destination level. Moreover, NTBs also hinder exports growth at the fi rm level and negatively affect other fi rm outcomes such as productivity growth. In contrast, the impact of liberalizing non-tariff measures is not statistically significant.