Associated with overweight, obesity and chronic diseases, the nutrition transition process reveals important socioeconomic issues in Mexico. Using panel data from the Mexican Family Life Survey, the purpose of the study is to estimate the causal effect of household socioeconomic status (SES) on nutritional outcomes among urban adults. We divide the analysis into two steps. First, using a mixed clustering procedure, we distinguish four socioeconomic classes based on income, educational and occupational dimensions: (i) a poor class; (ii) a lower-middle class; (iii) an upper-middle class; (iv) a rich class. Second, using an econometric framework adapted to our study (the Hausman-Taylor estimator), we measure the impact of belonging to these socioeconomic groups on individual anthropometric indicators, based on the body-mass index (BMI) and the waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). Our results make several contributions: (i) we show that a new middle class, rising out of poverty, is the most exposed to the risks of adiposity; (ii) as individuals from the upper class seem to be fatter than individuals from the upper-middle class, we can reject the assumption of an inverted U-shaped relationship between socioeconomic and anthropometric status as commonly suggested in emerging economies; (iii) the influence of SES on central adiposity appears to be particularly strong for men.

Titre courant impair : Effets de l'obésité infantile sur l'échec scolaire Résumé : Afin de mieux comprendre la relation causale qui existe entre le surpoids et l'obésité infantiles et l'échec scolaire, nous réalisons une étude qualitative à Mexico auprès de 29 élèves du primaire et du secondaire. Les conclusions issues de cette étude sont les suivantes. Tout d'abord, l'excès de poids affecte les performances scolaires à travers deux canaux interdépendants : la stigmatisation sociale et une perte de productivité. Trois principaux mécanismes régissent la relation. Tandis que la perte de productivité constitue à elle seule un de ces mécanismes, la stigmatisation sociale de l'obésité se décline en deux types de mécanismes : (i) les mécanismes sociaux directs, prenant la forme d'agression matérielle et d'exclusion par les pairs ; (ii) les mécanismes sociaux indirects se référant aux troubles psychosociologiques dont souffrent les individus stigmatisés. Enfin, le risque de se faire discriminer à cause de son poids dépend de différents facteurs individuels tels que l'âge, le genre, le niveau de corpulence et la distribution de l'adiposité dans le corps.  Mots-clés : obésité infantile-réussite scolaire-perte de productivité-stigmatisation sociale-analyse qualitative-Mexique. Title: How does childhood obesity affect school achievement? Contributions from a qualitative analysis implemented in Mexico City.

This article analyzes how social interventions offer a solution to counteract the spread of overweight among the poor. Focusing on the Mexican conditional cash transfers program, we assess the average effect of a long run enrollment on adult body mass index and waist-to-height ratio. An original triple difference approach, which distinguishes over time participants from nonparticipants and stayers from leavers, is implemented. We find that the expansion of this program (to urban areas) has a protective effect on adult bodyweight for staying participants, but not an absolute effect. Moreover, the global impact of the program to reduce obesity is halved due to a low rate of participation in Mexican cities. Furthermore, we find health-risky externalities related to the cash component of the program. Indeed, the amount of cash payments is positively correlated with abdominal fat concentration, especially among enrolled women and for short-run enrollments. To sum up, our results bring new insights to the complementary role of both program components (cash and conditionalities).

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Income inequality and obesity are both widespread socioeconomic issues, particularly salient in middle-income countries. This article seeks to detect the relationship between local income inequality and excess weight in Mexico, using robust municipal income inequality measures generated through small area estimation method and instrumental variable multilevel estimations. Our results emphasize a negative impact of municipal income inequality on individual bodyweight, especially for women. We also explore the potential channels through which income inequality may decrease bodyweight. Three-stage least squares estimations highlight that the social capital pathway, the public policy pathway and the psychological pathway help to explain the negative effect of inequality on excess weight.Our results are fairly robust to alternative inequality measures and nutritional indicators.

SUMMARY This comparative study examines the relationship between excess weight and hourly wages in the unprecedented context of middle‐income countries. We compare three countries that are at different stages of the nutrition transition: India (at an early stage), China (at an intermediate stage) and Mexico (at an advanced stage). To do so, we use three distinct household surveys and combine different estimation procedures. Our results emphasise a wage penalty of underweight together with a wage reward of excess weight in India, pointing towards the persistence of pro‐fat social norms in a country where hunger is still highly prevalent. Conversely, we observe significant overweight and obesity wage penalties in China, especially in non‐manual jobs, probably due to a large diffusion of anti‐fat social norms in a country where hunger is residual and normal weight predominant. In Mexico, we find an overweight wage premium in manual jobs and no effect in non‐manual jobs. We speculate that the large‐scale diffusion of excess weight may lead to its greater social acceptance (i.e. ‘new’ pro‐fat norms). Finally, we explore the potential transmission channels through which bodyweight may affect wages. We provide evidence of potential anti‐fat discrimination in China and pro‐fat‐discrimination in India and Mexico. Our results have important implications in terms of public health policy.

Recent studies reported that the age of primary school enrolment is a major driver of educational achievement and adult income, but its impacts on childhood health and nutrition remain largely unknown, particularly in developing countries where childhood stunting and overweight coexist. In Brazil, children are supposed to enrol in primary school the year they turn 6. Using a database of middle school students in Brazil based on a 2015 survey, I implemented an instrumental variables strategy using quasi-exogenous variations in the students' birthdates to isolate the impact of late primary school enrolment (i.e., older than 6 when enrolled) on height-forage and body mass-for-age indicators. Overall, late enrolment has protective effects against hazardous weight gain (− 0.14 z-score unit) but significantly increases the risk of moderate stunting (by 1.5% points). Heterogeneity in family backgrounds may explain these results. Indeed, delayed school enrolment is particularly detrimental for the nutritional status of students from underprivileged settings. In terms of public policy, rather than changing school starting age, this study highlights the importance of focusing on pathways to fight both stunting and overweight conditions in Brazilian children.

Objective: This study aims to explore within-country heterogeneity in the relationship between body mass and labour income. We focus on Mexico that is an emerging country where overweight is predominant and hunger has become marginal.Subjects and Methods: Based on the working-age population from the Mexican Family Life Survey (2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012), we use a regression discontinuity design to test for significant discontinuities along the body mass-income relationship. More specifically, we investigate the presence of income gaps along the body mass distribution.Results: Our findings suggest that the overweight status is not particularly penalised in the Mexican labour market. By contrast, the obesity status decreases hourly wages by about 15%. Regarding heterogeneity, obesityrelated wage penalties are stronger for female than male employees and higher in service employments, urban areas and the latest survey. Conclusion:We conclude on a co-occurrence of pro-fat and anti-fat social norms in emerging countries. Our results might be generalised to other middle-income economies with similar nutritional patterns where hunger is marginal and overweight predominant.