'Globesity'? The effects of globalization on obesity and caloric intake

Joan Costa-Font and Núria Mas

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We examine the effect of globalization, in its economic and social dimensions, on obesity and caloric intake, namely the so –called ‘globesity’ hypothesis. Our results suggest a robust association between globalization and both obesity and caloric intake. A one standard deviation increase in globalization is associated with a 23.8 percent increase in obese population and a 4.3 percent rise in calorie intake. The effect remains statistically significant even with an instrumental variable strategy to correct for some possible reverse causality, a lagged structure, and corrections for panel standard errors. However, we find that the primary driver is ‘social’ rather than ‘economic’ globalization effects, and specifically the effects of changes in ‘information flows’ and ‘social proximity’ on obesity. A one standard deviation increase in social globalization increased the percentage of obese population by 13.7 percent.

Keywords: health inequality; categorical data; entropy measures; health surveys; upward status; downward status. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 P46 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-10-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-int
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Published in Food Policy, 18, October, 2016, 64, pp. 121-132. ISSN: 0306-9192

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Related works:
Journal Article: ‘Globesity’? The effects of globalization on obesity and caloric intake (2016)
Working Paper: 'Globesity'? The Effects of Globalization on Obesity and Caloric Intake (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:67966

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