The Effects of Female Labor Force Participation on Obesity

Abstract

This paper assesses whether a causal relationship exists between recent increases in female labor force participation and the increased prevalence of obesity amongst women. The expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in the 1980s and 1990s have been established by prior literature as having generated variation in female labor supply, particularly amongst single mothers. Here, we use this plausibly exogenous variation in female labor supply to identify the effect of labor force participation on obesity status. We use data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and replicate labor supply effects of the EITC expansions found in previous literature. This validates employing a difference-indifferences estimation strategy in the NHIS data, as has been done in several other data sets. Depending on the specification, we find that increased labor force participation can account for at most 19% of the observed change in obesity prevalence over our sample period. Our preferred specification, however, suggests that there is no causal link between increased female labor force participation and increased obesity.

The impact of in-work tax credit for families on self-rated health in adults: a cohort study of 6900 New Zealanders

“…They are also consistent with findings of no effect on mental health,17 18 obesity,19 bio-markers,18 smoking20 and smoking in Blacks/Hispanics 21. One explanation for these essentially null-findings may be that, by design, IWTCs are unavailable to those low-income (eg, unemployment-beneficiary) families, for whom additional income may have the largest positive health effects.…”

“…Previous evidence of IWTC improving smoking19 (also in Whites/Hispanics)18 in the USA and life satisfaction in the UK,14 compared with the null-findings for SRH in NZ, if not due to improvements in the former health outcomes not translating into improved SRH,14 could be explained by differences in IWTC designs, such as NZ's IWTC universally covering low-income and middle-income groups, whereas those in the USA and the UK exclusively target low-income families. Furthermore, if the broad welfare state provision of public health and social services fulfil the basic health needs for low-income and middle-income families in NZ, but these needs are not equally met by the lower safety nets provided to low-income families in the USA/UK, then additional income from IWTC should impact health less in NZ than in the USA/UK.…”

“…One study found that becoming eligible for a substantial additional amount of EITC did not impact the probability of very good/excellent SRH in adult women (β=−0.5%; 95% CI=−2.7% to 1.8%) 18. Furthermore, for adult women, studies have not found convincing evidence for an effect on mental health;17 18 obesity;19 smoking;20 smoking in Blacks/Hispanics21 and bio-markers,18 although other research has found significantly improved life satisfaction17 and reduced smoking22 (also in Whites/Hispanics) 21. However, most previous studies (except two)17 22 used population-level difference-in-difference-in-difference methods, which may be biased, if the health status of the control group differs from that of the treatment group in its pretreatment trend 15.…”

Δοκίμια Στην Οικονομική Της Παχυσαρκίας

“…Επίσης, οι απασχολούμενοι έχουν μικρότερη πιθανότητα εξόδου από την παχυσαρκία. Η εν λόγω αρνητική συσχέτιση μπορεί να αντικατοπτρίζει το αυξημένο κόστος ευκαιρίας του χρόνου που αντιμετωπίζουν οι εργαζόμενοι, σε σχέση με τους μη-εργαζόμενους, κόστος που τους οδηγεί σε κατανάλωση τροφής που απαιτεί λίγο χρόνο προετοιμασίας και, συνήθως, είναι ιδιαίτερα χαμηλής ποιότητας (Gomis-Porqueras et al, 2011). Επιπλέον, στην ίδια κατεύθυνση κινούνται και οι Norton and Han (2008) που υποστηρίζουν ότι οι μη-απασχολούμενοι έχουν περισσότερο χρόνο για σωματική άσκηση και λιγότερο διαθέσιμο εισόδημα για να αγοράσουν αλκοόλ.…”

“…Τα εμπειρικά στοιχεία που αφορούν στις επιπτώσεις των καταστάσεων απασχόλησης στα αποτελέσματα σωματικού βάρους οδηγούν σε ανάμεικτα συμπεράσματα. Ειδικότερα, η απασχόληση μπορεί να συνδέεται αρνητικά με το σωματικό βάρος, λόγω πιθανής αύξησης της κατανάλωσης ακριβότερων/περισσότερο ποιοτικών τροφίμων (Gomis-Porqueras et al, 2011).…”