Kitt Carpenter¹ (with Brandyn F. Churchill¹ and Michelle Marcus¹)

1 Vanderbilt University

Indoor tanning beds (ITBs) emit harmful UV light at high intensity and have been classified as carcinogenic to humans by the World Health Organization since 2009. In that same year, more one in three white high school girls reported using an indoor tanning bed in the prior year; by 2019 that figure had fallen to fewer than one in ten. We are the first to study the role of state laws prohibiting youths from indoor tanning on many tanning-related outcomes using difference-in-differences models and staggered adoption of ITB prohibitions across states. We find that youth ITB prohibitions reduced search intensity for tanning-related information and reduced self-reported indoor tanning participation and intensity among teen girls. We also find that youth ITB prohibitions significantly reduced the size of the indoor tanning market by increasing tanning salon closures and reducing tanning salon sales. We find little evidence of unintended consequences on other youth risky behaviors, and in fact we find evidence that youth ITB prohibitions increase sun protective behaviors. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of youth ITB prohibitions and provide novel evidence on how public health policies affect private market outcomes.