Weight gains from trade in foods: Evidence from Mexico

Giuntella, Osea; Rieger, Matthias; Rotunno, Lorenzo

doi:10.3386/w24942

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Looking at industrializing countries, Bombardini and Li (2016) find that the recent Chinese export growth has raised infant mortality across Chinese prefectures by increasing the level of pollution. Finally, Giuntella et al (2018) find that imports of unhealthy food from the US have raised the prevalence of obesity across Mexican states. Our work complements these studies by highlighting a different, and not yet fully understood, mechanism through which globalization may affect individual wellbeing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Globalization and mental distress

Colantone

Crinò

Ogliari

2019

Journal of International Economics

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We study the effects of import competition on workers' mental distress, using unique longitudinal data on mental health for British residents, coupled with measures of import competition in more than 100 industries over 1995-2007. We find that import competition has a large negative impact on individual mental health. Compared to a worker employed in the industry at the 25th percentile of the import competition distribution, a worker employed in the industry at the 75th percentile would need a yearly monetary compensation of £270 to make up for her greater utility loss. We find import competition to have larger effects on the right tail of the mental distress distribution, thereby increasing inequality in mental health not only across but also within industries. We show that this is consistent with import competition disproportionately hitting specific groups of workers in an industry, such as the youngest or those with a large family, a poor financial condition, a short job tenure, a temporary contract, and a bluecollar or tradable job. Using information on family ties, we find that import competition has negative spillovers to other family members. In particular, women's mental distress increases as a consequence of the import competition faced by their partners. Moreover, paternal import competition leads to reduced investment in child rearing and worsened children's self-esteem and life satisfaction. Finally, we provide evidence that import competition is likely to work through a complex set of channels. These include observable labor market outcomes such as higher likelihood of job displacement and lower wage growth, but also reduced job satisfaction and gloomier expectations about the future.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Globalization and mental distress

Colantone

Crinò

Ogliari

2019

Journal of International Economics

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“…First, our analysis covered major dietary risks, but it did not analyse the impacts food trade can have on other aspects important for health. Those include the impact food trade has for overweight and obesity in the importing countries [15][16][17] , or the relationship between food trade and consumption of ultra-processed foods 37,38 . Process-based analyses of these and further health aspects related to trade are an important avenue for future research 19,20 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Trading food between countries is generally perceived to increase the supply, access, and diversity of food available to consumers [2][3][4] , and in principle can contribute to greater food and nutrition security [5][6][7][8][9] , and a more e cient use of environmental resource 10 . However, concerns have been raised about the role food trade plays in outsourcing environmental pollution [11][12][13][14] , and the health risks associated with changing dietary patterns and increasing levels of overweight and obesity [15][16][17][18] . Despite the ongoing discussion, the empirical evidence on the relationship between the trade in food and health outcomes remains scarce 19,20 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The contribution of international food trade to dietary risks and mortality at global, regional, and national levels

Springmann

Kennard

Dalin

et al. 2022

Preprint

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About a quarter of all food produced for human consumption is internationally traded, including foods with important public health implications such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and red meat. Food trade is generally perceived to increase the availability and diversity of foods available to consumers, but there is little empirical evidence on its implications for human health. Here we show that food trade has a substantial impact on dietary risks and mortality worldwide, and that whether impacts are positive or negative depends on the types of foods traded. Using bilateral trade data for 2019, together with food-specific risk-disease relationships, we estimate that international trade in fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts improved dietary risks in the importing countries and was associated with a reduction in mortality from non-communicable diseases of ~ 1.4 million deaths globally. In contrast, trade in red meat aggravated dietary risks in the importing countries and was associated with an increase of ~ 150,000 deaths. We identified European countries as the greatest importers of health-promoting foods, and countries in the Americas as the greatest exporters, whilst Germany, the USA, Spain, Brazil, and Australia were leading exporters of foods that increase dietary risks. The magnitude of our findings suggests that safeguarding the trade in health-promoting foods from disruptions, whilst limiting those of unhealthy ones can make substantial contribution to maintaining and improving population health. We anticipate that considering impacts on dietary risks will become important aspects for health-sensitive trade and agriculture policies, and for policy responses to disruptions in food chains.

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“…Giuntella et al. 's (2019) empirical model shows that food imports from the USA explain about 10% of obesity prevalence among Mexican women between 1988 and 2012, as they prevented food inflation and may have resulted in habit formation. Therefore, when income changes happen in relation to economic development, an increase in income seems initially associated with an increase in energy density.…”

Section: The Empirical Link Between Income and Obesitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The elusive link between income and obesity

Mathieu-Bolh

2021

Journal of Economic Surveys

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Forseveral decades, obesity has been a major public health and public policy issue involving high private and social costs. The literature on the causes of obesity has identified a number of non‐economic and economic causes. Among the latter, poverty seems to be connected to obesity in rich countries. However, a deeper study of the empirical literature suggests that the link between income and obesity is more complex, as it can be negative or positive, or changes when countries develop over time. In recent years, new theoretical explanations of this complex link have emerged. Our literature review of the empirical and theoretical literature aims at better understanding the link between income and obesity, providing an essential foundation for adequate policy making.

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Weight gains from trade in foods: Evidence from Mexico

Cited by 6 publications

References 39 publications

Globalization and mental distress

Globalization and mental distress

The contribution of international food trade to dietary risks and mortality at global, regional, and national levels

The elusive link between income and obesity

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