Why Have Americans Become More Obese?

Cutler, David M.; Glaeser, Edward L.; Shapiro, Jesse M.

doi:10.1257/089533003769204371

Cited by 1,077 publications

(534 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Our research is consistent with the hypothesis of Cutler et al (2003), i.e. technological changes have lowered the relative full prices of mass-produced foods and favoured the consumption of energy-dense ones.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 91%

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Food prices and overweight patterns in Italy

2011

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractIn this paper we examine the role of relative food prices in determining the recent increase in body weight in Italy. Cross-price elasticities of unhealthy and healthy foods estimated by a demand system provide a consistent framework to evaluate substitution effects, when a close association is assumed between unhealthy (healthy) foods and more (less) energy-dense foods. We used a dataset constructed from a series of cross-sections of the Italian Household Budget Survey (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005) to obtain the variables of the demand system, which accounts for regional price variability. The relative increase of healthy food prices was found to produce nontrivial elasticities of substitution towards higher relative consumption of unhealthy foods, with effects on weight outcomes. In addition, these changes were unevenly distributed among individuals and were particularly significant for those who were poorer and had less education.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…The research programs quoted in the works of Cutler et al (2003) and Bleich et al (2008) explain rising rates of obesity as the result of over-consumption of calories, associated with technological changes which lower the unitary cost of food.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food prices and overweight patterns in Italy

2011

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“…In fact, this influence can be clearly seen as children are more likely to pick up items that are in "Mac Donald's" packaging (Robinson et al, 2007). More generally, Cutler et al (2003) and Bleich et al (2008) argue that the increased calorie intake (i.e., eating habits) plays a major role in explaining current obesity rates. Importantly, weight gain prior to adulthood set the stage for weight gain in adulthood.…”

Section: Previous Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…5 An indirect evidence of the relationship between eating habits and weight gain come from the literature on the (negative) effect of fast food prices on adolescent BMI (see Chou et al, 2005;Powell et al, 2007;Auld and Powell, 2008;Powell and Bao, 2009). See also Cutler et al (2003) which relates the declining relative price of fast food and the increase in fast food restaurant availability over time to increasing obesity in the U.S. 6 We acknowledge that some recent studies have pointed that obesity might be partially due to a virus ad-36 (see Rogers et al, 2007). 7 Of course, having obese peers may influence a student's tolerance for being obese and therefore his weight management behaviours.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer effects, fast food consumption and adolescent weight gain

Fortin

Yazbeck

2015

Journal of Health Economics

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This paper aims at opening the black box of peer effects in adolescent weight gain. Using Add Health data on secondary schools in the U.S., we investigate whether these effects partly flow through the eating habits channel. Adolescents are assumed to interact through a friendship social network. We first propose a social interaction model of fast food consumption. Our approach allows to control for correlated effects at the network level and to solve the simultaneity (reflection) problem. We exploit results by Bramoullé, Djebbari and Fortin (2009) which show that if there are two agents who are separated by a link of distance 3 within a network (i.e., two adolescents who are not friends but are linked by two friends), peer effects are identified. The model is estimated using maximum likelihood and generalized 2SLS strategies. We also estimate a panel dynamic weight gain production function relating an adolescent's Body Mass Index (BMI) to his current fast food consumption and his lagged BMI level. Results show that there are positive significant peer effects in fast food consumption among adolescents belonging to a same friendship school network. The estimated social multiplier is 1.59. Our results also suggest that, at the network level, an extra day of weekly fast food restaurant visits increases BMI by 2.4%, when peer effects are taken into account.

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“…Indeed, caloric intake per person in the US remained roughly constant between 1910and 1985. But it then rose by 20% between 1985and 2000(Putnum et al, 2002, see also Cutler et al, 2003 andBleich et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A mass phenomenon: The social evolution of obesity

Strulik

2014

Journal of Health Economics

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Abstract. This paper proposes a theory for the social evolution of obesity. It considers a society, in which individuals experience utility from consumption of food and non-food, the state of their health, and the evaluation of their appearance by others. The theory explains why, ceteris paribus, poor persons are more prone to be severely overweight although eating is expensive and how obesity occurs as a social phenomenon such that body mass continues to rise long after the initial cause (e.g. a lower price of food) is gone. The paper investigates the determinants of a steady-state at which the median citizen is overweight and how an originally lean society arrives at such a steady-state. Extensions of the theory towards dietary choice and the possibility to exercise in order to loose weight demonstrate robustness of the basic mechanism and provide further interesting results.

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Why Have Americans Become More Obese?

Abstract: doi:10.1257/08953300376920437

Cited by 1,077 publications

References 22 publications

Food prices and overweight patterns in Italy

Food prices and overweight patterns in Italy

Peer effects, fast food consumption and adolescent weight gain

A mass phenomenon: The social evolution of obesity

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