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Do You Want Fries with That? An Exploration of Serving Size, Social Welfare, and Our Waistlines

Author

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  • Thomas D. Jeitschko
  • Rowena A. Pecchenino

Abstract

Given increasing obesity rates, fingers are often pointed at "big food" and their marketing practices. Restaurant meals are indeed larger than home-cooked meals, and portion sizes have increased. We consider constrained "socially optimal"--rather than decentralized profit-maximizing--portions to see whether welfare maximizing strategies may also be waistline-increasing. We demonstrate that socially optimal restaurant meals are larger than average home-cooked meals, yet the choice to "super-size" alleviates the size discrepancy. Moreover, portion sizes at home and in restaurants increase with relative reductions in the marginal costs and/or relative increases in the fixed costs of meal preparation. (JEL I10, D11) Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas D. Jeitschko & Rowena A. Pecchenino, 2006. "Do You Want Fries with That? An Exploration of Serving Size, Social Welfare, and Our Waistlines," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 44(3), pages 442-450, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ecinqu:v:44:y:2006:i:3:p:442-450
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ei/cbj036
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jan Marcus & Thomas Siedler & Nicolas R. Ziebarth, 2022. "The Long-Run Effects of Sports Club Vouchers for Primary School Children," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 128-165, August.
    2. Dragone, D. & Ziebarth, N.R., 2015. "Non-Separable Time Preferences and Novelty Consumption: Theory and Evidence from the East German Transition to Capitalism," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 15/28, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    3. Dragone, Davide & Ziebarth, Nicolas R., 2015. "Economic Development, Novelty Consumption, and Body Weight: Evidence from the East German Transition to Capitalism," IZA Discussion Papers 8967, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Dragone, Davide & Ziebarth, Nicolas R., 2017. "Non-separable time preferences, novelty consumption and body weight: Theory and evidence from the East German transition to capitalism," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 41-65.
    5. Michael L. Anderson & David A. Matsa, 2011. "Are Restaurants Really Supersizing America?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 152-188, January.
    6. Reggiani, Carlo, 2011. "Size (of the product) matters," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 329-344, July.
    7. Kushneel Prakash & Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & Russell Smyth, 2022. "Petrol prices and obesity," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(7), pages 1381-1401, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory

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