Exposure to Obesity and Weight Gain among Adolescents

Muzhe Yang () and Rui Huang ()
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Muzhe Yang: Lehigh University
Rui Huang: University of Connecticut

No 116, Food Marketing Policy Center Research Reports from University of Connecticut, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Charles J. Zwick Center for Food and Resource Policy

Abstract: In a treatment-effect framework using Add Health data, we investigate whether adolescents gain weight when increasingly exposed to obesity in their social networks. We ?nd that weight gain can be a reaction to an increase, but not a decrease, in exposure to obesity that is based on social ties, not geographic proximity. Taking an endogenous growth perspective on the prevalence of obesity, we thus attempt to reveal a mechanism through which obesity may potentially develop into a sweeping epidemic. Our results also suggest an uphill battle against the obesity epidemic, and we recommend that its prevention be a high priority.

Pages: 67 pages
Date: 2009-10
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zwi:fpcrep:116

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