Do peers affect childhood obesity outcomes? Peer-effect analysis in public schools

Jebaraj Asirvatham, Michael R. Thomsen, Rodolfo Nayga and Heather L. Rouse

Canadian Journal of Economics, 2018, vol. 51, issue 1, 216-235

Abstract: This study investigates whether obese peers are a contributing factor in childhood body-weight outcomes. Using an instrumental variables method on exogenously assigned peers (i.e., new peers), we find that the weight of peers within the same grade and school significantly impacts body mass index (BMI) z-score of an individual student. The size of the peer effect, however, is negligible. We find no evidence of interaction between newly assigned peer groups prior to assignment. Furthermore, the obese peers variable is significant only for those peers with whom a student interacts.

JEL-codes: D10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/caje.12321 (text/html)
access restricted to subscribers

Related works:
Journal Article: Do peers affect childhood obesity outcomes? Peer‐effect analysis in public schools (2018)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cje:issued:v:51:y:2018:i:1:p:216-235

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.economic ... ionen/membership.php

Access Statistics for this article

Canadian Journal of Economics is currently edited by Zhiqi Chen

More articles in Canadian Journal of Economics from Canadian Economics Association Canadian Economics Association Prof. Werrner Antweiler, Treasurer UBC Sauder School of Business 2053 Main Mall Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Prof. Werner Antweiler ().