From Poverty to Obesity: Exploration of the Food Choice Constraint Model and the Impact of an Energy-Dense Food Tax

Seth S. Martin

The American Economist, 2005, vol. 49, issue 2, 78-86

Abstract: Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and is disproportionately concentrated in poor populations. This paper explores the role that poverty may play in driving the present obesity epidemic. Current literature supports a food choice constraint model in which one's ability to purchase healthy foods falls with income in a standard budget constraint shift fashion because healthy foods (nonenergydense foods) are relatively costly. This model is reinforced by a biological preference for energy-dense foods. Theoretically, a tax on energy-dense food would reduce the prevalence of obesity, along with obesity-related disease, and therefore should be carefully considered by the American people.

Date: 2005
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/056943450504900210 (text/html)

Related works:
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:sae:amerec:v:49:y:2005:i:2:p:78-86

DOI: 10.1177/056943450504900210

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in The American Economist from Sage Publications
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().