Obesity and Household Financial Distress

Katherine Guthrie and Jan Sokolowsky

Critical Finance Review, 2017, vol. 7, issue 1, 133-178

Abstract: Obesity provides a potentially informative signal about individuals’ choices and preferences. Using National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data, we estimate that debt delinquency is 20 percent higher among the obese than the non-obese after controlling for an extensive set of financial and economic credit risk factors. The economic significance of obesity for delinquencies is comparable to that of job displacements. Obesity is particularly informative about delinquencies among those with low credit risk. In terms of channels, we find that the conditional obesity effect is partially mediated through health, but is not attributable to individuals’ attitudes, time and risk preferences, or cognitive skills.

Keywords: Consumer credit; Credit risk; Delinquency; Financial distress; Household finance; Obesity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 D14 D91 G00 G19 I19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:now:jnlcfr:104.00000034

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