EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident on the body mass index of students in Japan

Eiji Yamamura ()

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Based on prefecture-level panel data from Japan for 2010 and 2012, this paper investigates how the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident influenced the body mass index (BMI) of students aged between 5 and 17 years old. A differences-in-differences approach was used to show that (1) students’ BMIs reduced across Japan from 2010 to 2012 and (2) compared with other prefectures there was an increase in the BMIs of primary school students aged 5–11 years old in Fukushima as a result of the Fukushima accident. These findings suggest that restrictions placed on outdoor exercise as a result of the nuclear accident in Fukushima prevented primary school children from burning calories consumed; in other areas a reduction in the use of air-conditioning increased the burning of calories.

Keywords: Fukushima, Nuclear accident; Body mass index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H19 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-01-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/43920/1/MPRA_paper_43920.pdf original version (application/pdf)

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:pra:mprapa:43920

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-22
Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:43920