IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ijhplm/v34y2019i1p396-413.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A healthy weight improves life satisfaction

Author

Listed:
  • Nazim Habibov
  • Alena Auchynnikava
  • Rong Luo
  • Lida Fan

Abstract

In this study, we examine the effects of having a healthy weight in form of a healthy body mass index (BMI) on life satisfaction using the data from a diverse sample of 27 post‐communist transitional countries. We find that a healthy BMI significantly raises life satisfaction, while an increase in BMI reduces life satisfaction. We also find that the positive effect of a healthy BMI on life satisfaction substantially diminishes as the political and economic situation improves. Equally, the positive effect of healthy BMI on life satisfaction is considerably lower for those who exhibit higher levels of institutional trust and express trust in government, parliament, and political parties. Classic regression models such as ordinary least squares (OLS) and ordered probit significantly underestimate the true effect of healthy BMI on life satisfaction. Such results suggest that unobserved confounders, measurement error, or their interplay appear to be the main source (s) of bias that eventually lead to a significant underestimation of the true effect of BMI on life satisfaction through classic regression models.

Suggested Citation

  • Nazim Habibov & Alena Auchynnikava & Rong Luo & Lida Fan, 2019. "A healthy weight improves life satisfaction," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 396-413, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijhplm:v:34:y:2019:i:1:p:396-413
    DOI: 10.1002/hpm.2672
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.2672
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hpm.2672?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Selezneva, Ekaterina, 2011. "Surveying transitional experience and subjective well-being: Income, work, family," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 139-157, June.
    2. Marina Selini Katsaiti, 2012. "Obesity and happiness," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(31), pages 4101-4114, November.
    3. Wang-Sheng Lee & Zhong Zhao, 2017. "Height, Weight and Well-Being for Rural, Urban and Migrant Workers in China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 117-136, May.
    4. Dragone, Davide, 2009. "A rational eating model of binges, diets and obesity," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 799-804, July.
    5. Mavisakalyan, Astghik, 2018. "Do employers reward physical attractiveness in transition countries?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 38-52.
    6. Luigino Bruni & Pier Luigi Porta (ed.), 2016. "Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Happiness and Quality of Life," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15606.
    7. Hamermesh, Daniel S. & Meng, Xin & Zhang, Junsen, 2002. "Dress for success--does primping pay?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 361-373, July.
    8. Nazim Habibov & Elvin Afandi, 2015. "Pre- and Post-crisis Life-Satisfaction and Social Trust in Transitional Countries: An Initial Assessment," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 121(2), pages 503-524, April.
    9. Becker, Gary S., 1971. "The Economics of Discrimination," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 2, number 9780226041162, December.
    10. Andrews,Donald W. K. & Stock,James H. (ed.), 2005. "Identification and Inference for Econometric Models," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521844413, January.
    11. Nazim Habibov & Alex Cheung & Alena Auchynnikava, 2017. "Does trust increase willingness to pay higher taxes to help the needy?," International Social Security Review, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 70(3), pages 3-30, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Namal N. Balasooriya & Jayatilleke S. Bandara & Nicholas Rohde, 2021. "The intergenerational effects of socioeconomic inequality on unhealthy bodyweight," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 729-747, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dilmaghani, Maryam, 2020. "Beauty perks: Physical appearance, earnings, and fringe benefits," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    2. Helmut Dietl & Anil Özdemir & Andrew Rendall, 2018. "The Role of Physical Attractiveness in Tennis TV-Viewership," Working Papers 376, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    3. HLASNY, Vladimir, 2014. "Four pillars of job applicant screening in China," Working Papers 2014029, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    4. Nazim Habibov & Alena Auchynnikava & Rong Luo, 2021. "Does the height to entrepreneurship nexus have two stages? New evidence from 27 nations," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 11(1), pages 141-152, December.
    5. Hübler Olaf, 2020. "The Gender-specific Role of Body Weight for Health, Earnings and Life Satisfaction in Piecewise and Simultaneous Equations Models," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 240(5), pages 653-676, October.
    6. LIU Xing & SIERMINSKA Eva, 2014. "Evaluating the effect of beauty on labor market outcomes: A review of the literature," LISER Working Paper Series 2014-11, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    7. Christian Pfeifer, 2012. "Physical attractiveness, employment and earnings," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(6), pages 505-510, April.
    8. Zeng, Qiyan & Yu, Xiaohua, 2019. "Overweight and obesity standards and subjective well-being: Evidence from China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 144-148.
    9. Arunachalam, Raj & Shah, Manisha, 2010. "The Prostitute's Allure: Examining Returns to Beauty, Productivity and Discrimination," IZA Discussion Papers 5064, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Hübler, Olaf, 2019. "The Role of Body Weight for Health, Earnings and Life Satisfaction," IZA Discussion Papers 12078, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Huffman, Sonya & Rizov, Marian, 2016. "Life Satisfaction and Diet: Evidence from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235148, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Nazim Habibov & Alena Auchynnikava & Rong Luo, 2019. "Does Community Level Trust Improve Self-Rated Welfare?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 146(3), pages 669-697, December.
    13. David Ong, 2022. "The college admissions contribution to the labor market beauty premium," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(3), pages 491-512, July.
    14. Helmut Dietl & Anil Özdemir & Andrew Rendall, 2020. "The role of facial attractiveness in tennis TV-viewership," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 521-535, July.
    15. Li, Shuanglong & Chen, Yunsong & He, Guangye, 2018. "Laugh and grow fat: Happiness affects body mass index among Urban Chinese adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 55-63.
    16. Astghik Mavisakalyan, 2016. "Looks matter: Attractiveness and employment in the former soviet union," Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre Working Paper series WP1604, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School.
    17. Wellalage, Nirosha & Locke, Stuart, 2017. "Access to credit by SMEs in South Asia: do women entrepreneurs face discrimination," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 336-346.
    18. Huang, Jiekun & Kisgen, Darren J., 2013. "Gender and corporate finance: Are male executives overconfident relative to female executives?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(3), pages 822-839.
    19. Mavisakalyan, Astghik, 2018. "Do employers reward physical attractiveness in transition countries?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 38-52.
    20. Kazuma Sato, 2021. "Unhappy and Happy Obesity: A Comparative Study on the United States and China," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1259-1285, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ijhplm:v:34:y:2019:i:1:p:396-413. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0749-6753 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.