Are Restaurants Really Supersizing America?

Michael Anderson and David A. Matsa

Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series from Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley

Abstract: While many researchers and policymakers infer from correlations between eating out and body weight that restaurants are a leading cause of obesity, a basic identification problem challenges these conclusions. We exploit the placement of Interstate highways in rural areas to obtain exogenous variation in the effective price of restaurants and examine the impact on body mass. We find no causal link between restaurant consumption and obesity. Analysis of food-intake micro-data suggests that consumers offset calories from restaurant meals by eating less at other times. We conclude that regulation targeting restaurants is unlikely to reduce obesity but could decrease consumer welfare.

Keywords: economics of regulation; health production; obesity; fat tax; Social and Behavioral Sciences; Medicine and Health Sciences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-07-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Are Restaurants Really Supersizing America? (2011)
Working Paper: Are Restaurants Really Supersizing America? (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cdl:agrebk:qt4vm5m5vr

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