In 2001, a study of 120 dancers in New York found that relaxation and enjoyment were their main reasons for indulging. (Weight control was one of the least-cited reasons).
Professors Nachum Sicherman (CBS) and Lalith Munasinghe (Barnard) recently put this in economic terms: time preference. Dancers, like most professionals with low wage growth, often choose immediate gratification over future effects.
According to the researchers’ study — which won the 2006 Eckstein Prize — people who are less future oriented (i.e. have a higher discount rate) are less likely to invest in human capital and hence more likely to select into careers with lower and flatter earnings profiles.
The gross hourly pay is substantially lower for smokers compared to nonsmokers. On average, the nonsmoker wage premium is more than 15 percent.
The authors posit that dancers smoke because they are more present-oriented.
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