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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Health Econ. 2011 Jul 14;30(5):1094–1102. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2011.07.003

Appendix Table 1.

Selected descriptive statistics, MEPS samples

MEPS 2000–2005
MEPS–NHIS Linked 2000–2005
All observations (N=27,466) Current non-smokers (N=21,323) Current smokers (N=6,143) All observations (N=42,821) Never-smokers (N=23,585) Ever-smokers (N=19,236)
Mean Std. Dev. Mean Std. Dev. Mean Std. Dev. Mean Std. Dev. Mean Std. Dev. Mean Std. Dev.
Hourly wage ($2002) 17.74 9.43 18.55 9.80 14.97 7.48 16.58 9.70 17.43 10.18 15.52 8.97
Current smoker 0.23 N/A N/A 0.25 0.00 0.54
Employer health coverage (ESI) at any point during year 0.90 0.91 0.85 0.83 0.86 0.80
Offered ESI at any point during year 0.93 0.94 0.89 0.89 0.91 0.86
Continuously covered by ESI during year 0.90 0.91 0.84 0.83 0.85 0.79
Female 0.45 0.46 0.41 0.55 0.59 0.50
Any children in household 0.57 0.58 0.54 0.46 0.48 0.43
Age 36.46 7.93 36.42 7.87 36.58 8.14 41.03 11.68 39.80 11.53 42.48 11.70
Race--black 0.12 0.12 0.10 0.12 0.14 0.11
Race--other 0.06 0.07 0.04 0.06 0.07 0.05
Urban 0.84 0.85 0.79 0.83 0.84 0.81
Education: 13 and over 0.42 0.48 0.22 0.38 0.45 0.29
Education: 9–12 0.46 0.42 0.58 0.47 0.43 0.51
Never married 0.29 0.29 0.31 0.29 0.30 0.27
Formerly married 0.11 0.10 0.17 0.19 0.15 0.23
Number of employees at job 180.78 185.06 188.03 187.47 156.08 174.70 144.02 175.75 151.69 180.56 134.39 169.20
Total medical expenditures ($2002) 1,733.49 4,415.66 1,793.44 4,524.06 1,529.21 4,025.21 2,593.80 6,815.02 2,373.87 6,521.43 2,854.37 7,125.96

Note: Estimates are weighted using MEPS sampling weights. MEPS 2000–2005 includes all person-year MEPS respondents from the regression sample (i.e. those with non-missing data who are between the ages of 20 and 50, continuously employed, working at least 35 hours per week, and not self-employed). The MEPS-NHIS sample consists of person-year observations from the 2000–2005 MEPS survey that can be linked to the NHIS sample from the preceding year. This sample is restricted to those between the ages of 18 and 64 who were chosen to respond to detailed questions on smoking history. The “Never-smokers” group consists of those who currently do not smoke and have smoked less than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime. The “Ever-smokers” group consists of all those who have smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime.