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Obesity and Health-Related Decisions: An Empirical Model of the Determinants of Weight Status

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  • Leonardo Fabio Morales
  • Penny Gordon-Larsen
  • David Guilkey

Abstract

Using Add Health, a very comprehensive longitudinal data set of teenagers and young adults in the United States, we estimate a structural dynamic model of the determinants of obesity. In addition to including many of the well-recognized endogenous factors mentioned in the literature as obesity determinants, i.e., physical activity, smoking, a proxy for food consumption, and childbearing, we also model the residential location as a choice variable, relevant to the young-to middle-aged adult, as a major component. This allows us to control for an individual’s self-selection into communities which possess the types of amenities in the built environment which in turn affect their behaviors such as physical activity and fast food consumption. We specify reduced form equations for all these endogenous demand decisions, together with an obesity structural equation. The whole system of equations is jointly estimated by a semi-parametric full information log-likelihood method that allows for a general pattern of correlation in the errors across equations. Simulations are then used to allow us to quantify the effects of these endogenous factors on the probability of obesity. A key finding is that controlling for residential self-selection has important substantive implications. To our knowledge, this has not been yet documented within a full information maximum likelihood framework.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonardo Fabio Morales & Penny Gordon-Larsen & David Guilkey, 2014. "Obesity and Health-Related Decisions: An Empirical Model of the Determinants of Weight Status," Borradores de Economia 846, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
  • Handle: RePEc:bdr:borrec:846
    DOI: 10.32468/be.846
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • R52 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Land Use and Other Regulations

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