TY  - JOUR
AU  - Philipson,Tomas J.
AU  - Posner,Richard A.
TI  - The Long-Run Growth in Obesity as a Function of Technological Change
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7423
PY  - 1999
Y2  - November 1999
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7423
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7423.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Tomas Philipson
Irving B. Harris Graduate School
of Public Policy Studies
University of Chicago
1155 E. 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 773/502-7773
E-Mail: t-philipson@uchicago.edu
AB  - This paper analyzes the factors contributing to the worldwide long-run rise in obesity and the effects of public interventions on its continued growth.  The growth of obesity in a population results from an increase in calorie consumption relative to physical activity.  Yet in developed countries, obesity has grown with modest rises in calorie consumption and with a substantial increase in both dieting and recreational exercise.  We consider the economic incentives that give rise to a growth in obesity by stimulating intake of calories while discouraging the expending of calories on physical activity.  We argue that technological change provides a natural interpretation of the long-run growth in obesity despite a rise in dieting and exercise, that it predicts that the effect of income on obesity falls with economic development, and that it implies that the growth in obesity may be self-limiting.
ER  -