Abstract
The relationship between the factors that go into producing obesity is quite complicated. For example, women with higher wages have a higher opportunity cost of exercising and cooking at home which would tend to increase weight but they also have more resources to purchase efficiency enhancers such as personal trainers and healthier prepared food which would tend to decrease weight. There is a building consensus that traditional economic models are inadequate to describe the production of body weight and obesity, and insights from psychology and behavioral economics can improve one's ability to understand these outcomes. The decision context is further complicated when parents are involved in purchasing decisions. Parents may care more about the healthfulness of the meal and therefore be more responsive to defaults than children.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 344-346 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | American Journal of Agricultural Economics |
| Volume | 94 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 1 2012 |
Funding
Comments on the first paper are by Craig Gundersen (cggunder@ illinois.edu) Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois. The work in this paper is supported by the USDA, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Services (CSREES) grant number 2007-35215-17871. Comments on the second paper are by Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach ([email protected]) School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University. Comments on the third paper are by David R. Just ([email protected]) Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous)
- Economics and Econometrics
