Hunger Games
When Do Fat Taxes Increase Consumer Welfare?
Jayson Lusk & Christiane Schroeter
Health Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous analyses of fat taxes have generally worked within an empirical framework in which it is difficult to determine whether consumers benefit from the policy. This note outlines on simple means to determine whether consumers benefit from a fat tax by comparing the ratio of expenditures on the taxed good to the weight effect of the tax against the individual's willingness to pay for a one-pound weight reduction. Our empirical calculations suggest that an individual would have to be willing to pay about $1500 to reduce weight by one pound for a tax on sugary beverages to be welfare enhancing. The results suggest either that a soda tax is very unlikely to increase individual consumer welfare or that the policy must be justified on some other grounds that abandon standard rationality assumptions.
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Does the National School Lunch Program Improve Children's Dietary Outcomes?
Benjamin Campbell et al.
American Journal of Agricultural Economics, July 2011, Pages 1099-1130
Abstract:
The National School Lunch Program's effect on children's diets has been extensively studied. Results have tended to be inconclusive regarding the effectiveness of the program. Utilizing more specific treatment groups, we find that participants in the National School Lunch Program do not consume a higher-quality diet at lunch than children choosing not to participate, even though the program is offered - but rather consume a higher quantity of foods while consuming similar amounts at other meals. Furthermore, children attending schools not participating in the National School Lunch Program have dietary outcomes that are not significantly different from program participants.
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Health and economic burden of the projected obesity trends in the USA and the UK
Claire Wang et al.
Lancet, 27 August 2011, Pages 815-825
Abstract:
Rising prevalence of obesity is a worldwide health concern because excess weight gain within populations forecasts an increased burden from several diseases, most notably cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancers. In this report, we used a simulation model to project the probable health and economic consequences in the next two decades from a continued rise in obesity in two ageing populations - the USA and the UK. These trends project 65 million more obese adults in the USA and 11 million more obese adults in the UK by 2030, consequently accruing an additional 6-8•5 million cases of diabetes, 5•7-7•3 million cases of heart disease and stroke, 492 000-669 000 additional cases of cancer, and 26-55 million quality-adjusted life years forgone for USA and UK combined. The combined medical costs associated with treatment of these preventable diseases are estimated to increase by $48-66 billion/year in the USA and by £1•9-2 billion/year in the UK by 2030. Hence, effective policies to promote healthier weight also have economic benefits.
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Secular Declines in the Association Between Obesity and Mortality in the United States
Neil Mehta & Virginia Chang
Population and Development Review, September 2011, Pages 435-451
Abstract:
Recent research suggests that rising obesity will restrain future gains in US life expectancy and that obesity is an important contributor to the current shortfall in us longevity compared to other high-income countries. Estimates of the contribution of obesity to current and future national-level mortality patterns are sensitive to estimates of the magnitude of the association between obesity and mortality at the individual level. We assessed secular trends in the obesity/mortality association among cohorts of middle-aged adults between 1948 and 2006 using three long-running US data sources: the Framingham Heart Study, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and the National Health Interview Survey. We find substantial declines over time in the magnitude of the association between obesity and overall mortality and, in certain instances, cardiovascular-specific mortality. We conclude that estimates of the contribution of obesity to current national-level mortality patterns should take into account recent reductions in the magnitude of the obesity and mortality association.
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Does the Sale of Sweetened Beverages at School Affect Children's Weight?
Solveig Cunningham & Madeline Zavodny
Social Science & Medicine, forthcoming
Abstract:
In response to the increase in children's weight in recent decades, many states, school districts, and schools in the United States have limited or eliminated the sale of sweetened beverages at school. These policies are promoted for their potential to reduce childhood overweight and obesity, but their effectiveness has not been evaluated. Using a large nationally representative longitudinal dataset, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten (ECLS-K), this study explores the relationship between children's access to sweetened beverages at school in 5th and 8th grade, their purchases and total consumption of these beverages, and their weight. We find almost no evidence that availability of sweetened beverages for sale at school leads to heavier weight or greater risk of overweight or obesity among children. We also find limited evidence that availability of sweetened beverages for sale at school leads to higher total consumption of these beverages.
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The Pull of the Past: When Do Habits Persist Despite Conflict With Motives?
David Neal et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
To identify the factors that disrupt and maintain habit performance, two field experiments tested the conditions under which people eat out of habit, leading them to resist motivational influences. Habitual popcorn eaters at a cinema were minimally influenced by their hunger or how much they liked the food, and they ate equal amounts of stale and fresh popcorn. Yet, mechanisms of automaticity influenced habit performance: Participants ate out of habit, regardless of freshness, only when currently in the context associated with past performance (i.e., a cinema; Study 1) and only when eating in a way that allowed them to automatically execute the response cued by that context (i.e., eating with their dominant hand; Study 2). Across all conditions, participants with weaker cinema-popcorn-eating habits ate because of motivations such as liking for the popcorn. The findings reveal how habits resist conflicting motives and provide insight into promising mechanisms of habit change.
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Child care subsidies and childhood obesity
Chris Herbst & Erdal Tekin
Review of Economics of the Household, September 2011, Pages 349-378
Abstract:
In this paper, we study the impact of child care subsidy receipt on low-income children's weight outcomes in the fall and spring of kindergarten using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort. Our results suggest that subsidy receipt is associated with increases in BMI and a greater likelihood of being overweight and obese. Using quantile regression methods, we find substantial variation in subsidy effects across the BMI distribution. Specifically, child care subsidies have no effect on BMI at the lower end of the distribution, inconsistent effects in the middle of the distribution, and large effects at the top of the distribution. Our results point to the use of non-parental child care, particularly center-based services, as the key mechanism through which subsidies influence children's weight outcomes.
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Food Insecurity and Insufficiency at Low Levels of Food Expenditures
Craig Gundersen & David Ribar
Review of Income and Wealth, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this study we investigate the external validity of the food insecurity and insufficiency measures - specifically, how these measures correlate with food expenditures - using the December 2003 Food Security Supplement of the Current Population Survey. We focus on a special segment of the population - households with low incomes and low food expenditures. If reports of food problems are based on a lack of food, reports should be nearly ubiquitous at the bottom of the expenditure distribution. We find, however, that this is not the case. We define and scale food expenditures several different ways and find that the reported incidence of food insecurity never rises above one-half anywhere along the corresponding expenditure distributions, leading to concerns about the external validity of the measure.
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Arguments at Mealtime and Child Energy Intake
Daniel Burnier, Lise Dubois & Manon Girard
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, forthcoming
Objective: To examine how arguments at mealtimes relate to children's daily energy intake.
Design: A cross-sectional study using data obtained through the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD 1998-2010), a representative sample of children born in 1998, in the province of Québec, Canada.
Setting: Face-to-face interviews, questionnaires, and 24-hour dietary recall interviews addressed to children's parents.
Participants: One thousand five hundred forty-nine 4-year-old children who participated in a nutrition substudy.
Main Outcome Measure: Children's energy intakes were measured through a 24-hour dietary recall interview administered to parents by trained nutritionists, in the children's homes.
Analysis: The main associations were examined through chi-square tests of independence and through multivariate logistic regression analyses.
Results: The adjusted odds for consuming a high daily energy intake was 2.5 (95% confidence interval: 1.3-4.9) in children who were never exposed to arguments (between parents and children) at mealtimes, in comparison to children who were often or always exposed to arguments.
Conclusions and Implications: Mealtimes that are free of arguments, specifically between parents and children, appear to associate with high daily energy intakes in children, even after controlling for other factors, including a child's level of physical activity, eating in front of the television, mother's educational level, and number of overweight parents, among others.
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Alexandria Blatt, Liane Roe & Barbara Rolls
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, April 2011, Pages 756-763
Background: The overconsumption of energy-dense foods leads to excessive energy intakes. The substitution of low-energy-dense vegetables for foods higher in energy density can help decrease energy intakes but may be difficult to implement if individuals dislike the taste of vegetables.
Objective: We investigated whether incorporating puréed vegetables to decrease the energy density of entrées at multiple meals reduced daily energy intakes and increased daily vegetable intakes.
Design: In this crossover study, 20 men and 21 women ate ad libitum breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the laboratory once a week for 3 wk. Across conditions, entrées at meals varied in energy density from standard versions (100% condition) to reduced versions (85% and 75% conditions) by the covert incorporation of 3 or 4.5 times the amount of puréed vegetables. Entrées were accompanied by unmanipulated side dishes. Participants rated their hunger and fullness before and after meals.
Results: Subjects consumed a consistent weight of foods across conditions of energy density; thus, the daily energy intake significantly decreased by 202 ± 60 kcal in the 85% condition (P < 0.001) and by 357 ± 47 kcal in the 75% condition (P < 0.0001). Daily vegetable consumption significantly increased from 270 ± 17 g of vegetables in the 100% condition to 487 ± 25 g of vegetables in the 75% condition (P < 0.0001). Despite the decreased energy intake, ratings of hunger and fullness did not significantly differ across conditions. Entrées were rated as similar in palatability across conditions.
Conclusions: Large amounts of puréed vegetables can be incorporated into various foods to decrease the energy density. This strategy can lead to substantial reductions in energy intakes and increases in vegetable intakes.
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Christiane Bozoyan & Tobias Wolbring
Economics & Human Biology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent studies in health economics have generated two important findings: that as a measure of fatness the body mass index (BMI) is biased; and that, when it comes to analyzing wage correlates, both fat-free mass (FFM) and body fat (BF) are better suited to the task. We validate these findings for Germany using the BIAdata Base Project and the German Socio-Economic Panel. While we find no significant correlation between BMI and wages in any of our models, simple linear regression models featuring both contemporary and time-lagged fatness measures indicate that FFM and, to a lesser extent, BF are associated with hourly wages: more specifically, the relationship between FFM/BF and hourly wages is about two to three times higher for females than for males. In contrast, fixed-effects models indicate that there is no correlation between hourly wages and both FFM and BF with one exception: a significant correlation (and one in line with expectations) is found to be the rule among job changers.
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Pablo Monsivais, Anju Aggarwal & Adam Drewnowski
Health Affairs, August 2011, Pages 1471-1477
Abstract:
The federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, emphasized the need for Americans to consume more potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin D, and calcium, and to get fewer calories from saturated fat and added sugar. We examined the economic impact of meeting these guidelines for adults in King County, Washington. We found that increasing consumption of potassium - the most expensive of the four recommended nutrients - would add $380 per year to the average consumer's food costs. Meanwhile, each time consumers obtained 1 percent more of their daily calories from saturated fat and added sugar, their food costs significantly declined. These findings suggest that improving the American diet will require additional guidance for consumers, especially those with little budget flexibility, and new policies to increase the availability and reduce the cost of healthful foods.
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Zhuo Chen & Qi Zhang
Journal of Family and Economic Issues, September 2011, Pages 508-520
Abstract:
This paper examines the association between food stamp program participation and bodyweight among 1,723 eligible women who were respondents of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Cohort. The study sample was stratified by race/ethnicity and two time periods, i.e., 1987-1996, 1998-2002, to allow for genetic and cultural differences and a potential structural break due to the 1996 welfare reform. We test a hypothesis based on the nutrigenomic literature suggesting that genetic heterogeneities result in varying effects of nutrition or food-borne components on metabolism. Differences in socioeconomic characteristics between participants and eligible non-participants were identified. We find a positive association between food stamp program participation and bodyweight among Hispanic women, particularly those of foreign-born.
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Direct and Indirect Effects of Body Weight on Adult Wages
Euna Han, Edward Norton & Lisa Powell
Economics & Human Biology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous estimates of the association between body weight and wages in the literature have been conditional on education and occupation. In addition to the effect of current body weight status (body mass index (BMI) or obesity) on wages, this paper examines the indirect effect of body weight status in the late-teenage years on wages operating through education and occupation choice. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 data, for women, we find that a one-unit increase in BMI is directly associated with 1.83 percent lower hourly wages whereas the indirect BMI wage penalty is not statistically significant. Neither a direct nor an indirect BMI wage penalty is found for men. However, results based on clinical weight classification reveal that the indirect wage penalty occurs to a larger extent at the upper tail of the BMI distribution for both men and women via the pathways of education and occupation outcomes. Late-teen obesity is indirectly associated with 3.5 percent lower hourly wages for both women and men. These results are important because they imply that the total effect of obesity on wages is significantly larger than has been estimated in previous cross-sectional studies.
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How Much Does the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Reduce Food Insecurity?
Caroline Ratcliffe, Signe-Mary McKernan & Sisi Zhang
American Journal of Agricultural Economics, July 2011, Pages 1082-1098
Abstract:
Nearly 15% of all U.S. households and 40% of near-poor households were food insecure in 2009. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the cornerstone of federal food assistance programs and serves as the first line of defense against food-related hardship. This paper measures the effectiveness of SNAP in reducing food insecurity using an instrumental variables approach to control for selection. Our results suggest that receipt of SNAP benefits reduces the likelihood of being food insecure by roughly 30% and reduces the likelihood of being very food insecure by 20%.
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Cora Peterson
Food Policy, October 2011, Pages 588-596
Abstract:
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is one of the United States' largest domestic food aid programs. The NSLP provides states with both cash and commodity foods for school meals. This research assessed the success of the school commodity program by comparing states' available annual funding to the value of foods that states actually received from 2001 to 2009. Results indicate that an in-kind food funding system is not desirable for schools; states failed to receive entitled commodity food value in most years, resulting in annual funding losses for schools of $35-87 million. Inconsistent funding inhibits schools' ability to improve meals and, ultimately, child nutrition outcomes. In light of these results, it is recommended that a cash benefit should replace the National School Lunch Program's commodity food program.
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Overweight and Poor? On the Relationship between Income and the Body Mass Index
Dean Jolliffe
Economics & Human Biology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Contrary to conventional wisdom, NHANES data indicate that the poor have never had a statistically significant higher prevalence of overweight status at any time in the last 35 years. Despite this empirical evidence, the view that the poor are less healthy in terms of excess accumulation of fat persists. This paper provides evidence that conventional wisdom is reflecting important differences in the relationship between income and the body mass index. The first finding is based on distribution-sensitive measures of overweight which indicates that the severity of overweight has been higher for the poor than the nonpoor throughout the last 35 years. The second finding is from a newly introduced estimator, unconditional quantile regression (UQR), which provides a measure of the income-gradient in BMI at different points on the unconditional BMI distribution. The UQR estimator indicates that the strongest relationship between income and BMI is observed at the tails of the distribution. There is a statistically significant negative income gradient in BMI at the obesity threshold and some evidence of a positive gradient at the underweight threshold. Both of these UQR estimates imply that for those at the tails of the BMI distribution, increases in income are correlated with healthier BMI values.
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The transformation of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Jacob Alex Klerman & Caroline Danielson
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Fall 2011, Pages 863-888
Abstract:
Between 2000 and 2005, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, until recently, the Food Stamp Program) caseload increased by half. As the Great Recession unfolded, the SNAP caseload grew even more rapidly. Further, over the past two decades the composition of the caseload has shifted sharply away from families combining food and cash assistance and toward families receiving food assistance in the absence of any other major, means-tested income support. By analyzing components of the caseload separately, we provide new and more insightful estimates of the effects of food and cash assistance policies and the economy on both the change in the composition of the caseload and the large caseload swings over the 1990s and 2000s. We find that the economy can explain a portion of caseload changes, but not compositional shifts. Food and cash assistance policies help to explain both changes. In total, the combination of SNAP and welfare policy changes account for about half of the sharp increase since 1994 in the share of SNAP households receiving food, but not cash, assistance.
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What's in a Name? The Effects of the Labels "Fat" Versus "Overweight" on Weight Bias
Paula Brochu & Victoria Esses
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, August 2011, Pages 1981-2008
Abstract:
This research examined the effects of the labels "fat" vs. "overweight" in the expression of weight bias, with the prediction that the label "fat" biases individuals to respond more negatively than does the label "overweight." In Study 1, participants' attitudes toward people labeled as fat were less favorable than were their attitudes toward people labeled as overweight. In Studies 2 and 3, although participants chose similar-sized figures to depict fat and overweight targets, weight stereotypes and weight attitudes were more negative toward people labeled as fat than those labeled as overweight. In addition, the endorsement of weight stereotypes mediated the biasing effect of the "fat" label on weight prejudice. Implications of this work for prejudice researchers and for public attitudes are discussed.
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Dual Conversations: Body Talk Among Young Women and Their Social Contacts
Maureen O'Dougherty et al.
Qualitative Health Research, September 2011, Pages 1191-1204
Abstract:
In this article, we explore an area little researched within the literature on body dissatisfaction: the content and functions of body talk. We interviewed 60 diverse, college-educated women aged 18 to 30 in the urban United States about how social contacts talked about their bodies. Half the women, and by their reports, half their contacts (N = 295) endorsed some ideal body, most often the thin model. The other half favored a "healthy," "average" range in body size, shape, and/or appearance. Excepting family members, contacts gave mostly positive comments about women's bodies or appearance, or made no comments. Many critiqued their own bodies, however, as did nearly half the women participants. We suggest that these women exempted others, but not themselves, from critical body surveillance, rendering contestation of the ideal theoretical. We also suggest that the parallel airing of self-criticism repeatedly circulated through speech, if not through practice, the imperative to regulate one's own gendered body toward unattainable normativity.