Obesity and the Rate of Time Preference: Is there a Connection?

Komlos, John; Smith, Patricia K.; Bogin, Barry

doi:10.2139/ssrn.464105

Cited by 48 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…26 PATIENCE Some researchers suspect that people are becoming more willing to exchange their future health for immediate gratification. 27 This theory would seem to indicate that people who are obese also should be more likely to indulge in risky behavior such as smoking and drink-ing alcoholic beverages, but research has not borne that out. Studies find only about a 10 percent correlation among these behaviors.…”

Section: Economic Factors and Childhood Obesitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Economics Of Childhood Obesity

2010

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In the past few decades, obesity rates among American children have skyrocketed. Although many factors have played a part in this unhealthy increase, this paper focuses on how economic policies may be contributing to our children's growing girth and how these policies might be altered to reverse this trend. It examines the economic causes and consequences of obesity, the rationales for government intervention, the cost-effectiveness of various policies, and the need for more research funding.I n the twenty-five years that elapsed between surveys conducted in 1971-1974 and in 1999-2000, the prevalence of obesity rose from 5 percent to 10.4 percent among two-to-five-year-olds; from 4 percent to 15.3 percent among six-to-elevenyear-olds; and from 6.1 percent to 15.5 percent among twelve-to-nineteen-year-olds. 1,2 Economic Factors And Childhood ObesityChildhood obesity is a complex, multidisciplinary issue, so the search for solutions requires information sharing across many fields. To promote such exchange, this paper describes research findings from the field of economics. Relative to other disciplines, economics has only recently been applied to the study of obesity. As a result, there are many useful applications yet to be made.Economics offers several useful tools for the study of childhood obesity: insights into the economic causes and consequences of obesity, clearly defined rationales for government intervention in markets, and the use of cost-effectiveness analysis for comparing policies to prevent or reduce obesity. This paper summarizes recent research in each of those areas. It concludes by discussing the implications for health policy.Economic explanations for the recent rise in obesity tend to focus on changes that give people incentives to consume more or to burn fewer calories. These include the following.FOOD PRICES The real price of food (the price of food adjusted for inflation across all goods and services) has declined greatly in recent decades. For example, between 1990 and 2007 the real price of a two-liter bottle of Coca-Cola fell 34.89 percent, and that of a McDonald's quarter-pounder with cheese fell 5.44 percent.3 Some research indicates that reductions in the price of food account for 41-43 percent of the rise in young adults' body mass index (BMI) between 1981 and 1994. 4 BMI is most sensitive to the price of fast food in particular for youth from families of low socioeconomic status.5 The real price of fruit and vegetables rose 17 percent between 1997 and 2003, 6 an increase that some studies have linked to higher BMI in American children and adolescents. 7,8 AGRICULTURAL POLICIES The decline in the price of food could be due to agriculture policies. However, several studies have concluded that such policies have little impact on consumer prices of energy-dense foods.9,10 About half of farm subsidies are based on historic, not current, production, which limits incentives for farmers to increase output.9 Moreover, U.S. farm policy raises John Cawley (JHC38@cornell .ed...

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Section: Economic Factors and Childhood Obesitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Economics Of Childhood Obesity

2010

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“…In addition, economists show the relationship between rising obesity rates and mother's labor supply , problems in school finance and accompanying soft drink and snack vending contracts , and improvements in technology that lower the time price of food (Lakdawalla and Philipson, 2002;Cutler et al, 2003;Komlos et al, 2004). Researchers find no single culprit for increasing weight gain, but rather many complementary changes which lead to higher calorie intake and lower levels of exercise (Anderson and Butcher, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weight gain in adolescents and their peers

Halliday

Kwak

2009

Economics & Human Biology

100

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Despite the urgent public health implications, relatively little is yet known about the effect of peers on adolescent weight gain. We describe trends and features of adolescent BMI in a nationally representative dataset and document correlations in weight gain among peers. We find strong correlations between own body mass index (BMI) and peers' BMI's. Though the correlations are especially strong in the upper ends of the BMI distribution, the relationship is smooth and holds over almost the entire range of adolescent BMI. Furthermore, the results are robust to the inclusion of school fixed effects and basic controls for other confounding factors such as race, sex, and age. Some recent research in this area considers whether or not adolescent weight gain is caused by peers. We discuss the econometric issues in plausibly estimating such effects while accounting for growth spurts and difficulties in defining adolescent obesity. While our work identifies correlations between adolescent BMI and peers' BMI, it is not intended to and cannot fully address the existence of endogenous peer effects. JEL: I10, I12

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“…Similarly, other incentive-driven explanations are derived from lower food prices: in particular, Chou et al (2004) report a negative correlation between individuals' body mass index (BMI) and food prices in fast-food and full-service restaurants. Other explanations hypothesize that an increase in the rate of time preference, or the rate at which future benefits are discounted against current consumption decisions, also contribute to the obesity epidemic (Komlos, et al, 2004). Only more recently have the roles of information and, in particular, of education been recognised (Cawley et al, 2007), although the association between education and obesity appears far from clear-cut.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%