Worth Your Weight: Experimental Evidence on the Benefits of Obesity in Low-Income Countries

Elisa Macchi

American Economic Review, 2023, vol. 113, issue 9, 2287-2322

Abstract: I study the economic value of obesity—a status symbol in poor countries associated with raised health risks. Randomizing decision-makers in Kampala, Uganda to view weight-manipulated portraits, I find that obesity is perceived as a reliable signal of wealth but not of beauty or health. Thus, leveraging a real-stakes experiment involving professional loan officers, I show that being obese facilitates access to credit. The large obesity premium, comparable to raising borrower self-reported earnings by over 60 percent, is driven by asymmetric information and drops significantly when providing more financial information. Notably, obesity benefits and wealth-signaling value are commonly overestimated, suggesting market distortions.

JEL-codes: D82 G21 G51 I12 O16 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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DOI: 10.1257/aer.20211879

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