Economic Preferences and Obesity: Evidence from a Clinical Lab-in-Field Experiment

Chiara Pastore, Stefanie Schurer, Agnieszka Tymula, Nicholas Fuller and Ian Caterson
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Nicholas Fuller: University of Sydney
Ian Caterson: University of Sydney

No 13915, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study economic decision-making of 284 people with obesity and pre-diabetes who participated in a 6-months randomised controlled trial to control weight and prevent diabetes. To elicit preferences, we use incentive-compatible experimental tasks that participants completed during their medical screening examination. We find that, on average, participants are risk averse, show no evidence of present bias, and have impatience levels comparable to healthy samples described in the international literature. Variations in present bias and impatience are not significantly associated with variations in markers of obesity. But we find a significant negative association between risk tolerance and BMI and other markers of obesity for women. A 1 standard deviation increase in risk tolerance is associated with a 0.2 standard deviation drop in BMI and waist circumference. Impatience moderates the link between risk tolerance and obesity. We replicate the key finding of interaction effects between risk and time preferences using survey data from a nationally representative sample of 6,281 Australians with similar characteristics. Deviating markedly from the literature, we conclude that risk tolerance brings benefits for health outcomes if combined with patience in this understudied but highly policy-relevant population.

Keywords: incentive-compatible economic experiment; obesity; risk tolerance; impatience; lab-in-field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C9 D81 D9 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 66 pages
Date: 2020-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-hea and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published in: Health Economics, 2023, 32 (9), 2147-2167

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