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Economic Contextual Factors and Child Body Mass Index

In: Economic Aspects of Obesity

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  • Lisa M. Powell
  • Frank J. Chaloupka

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between child weight and fast food and fruit and vegetable prices and the availability of fast food restaurants, full-service restaurants, supermarkets, grocery stores and convenience stores. We estimate cross-sectional and individual-level fixed effects (FE) models to account for unobserved individual-level heterogeneity. Data are drawn from the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics combined with external food price and outlet density data at the zip code level. FE results show that higher fruit and vegetable prices are statistically significantly related to a higher body mass index (BMI) percentile ranking among children with greater effects among low-income children: fruit and vegetable price elasticity for BMI is estimated to be 0.25 for the full sample and 0.60 among low-income children. Fast food prices are statistically significantly related to child weight only in cross-sectional models among low-income children with a price elasticity of -0.77. Increased supermarket availability and fewer available convenience stores are related with lower weight outcomes among low-income children. These results provide evidence on the potential effectiveness of using fiscal pricing interventions such as taxes and subsidies and other interventions to improve supermarket access as policy instruments to address childhood obesity.
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Suggested Citation

  • Lisa M. Powell & Frank J. Chaloupka, 2011. "Economic Contextual Factors and Child Body Mass Index," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Aspects of Obesity, pages 127-144, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:11818
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lakdawalla, Darius & Philipson, Tomas J., 2002. "The Growth of Obesity and Technological Change: A Theoretical and Empirical Examination," Working Papers 174, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    2. Powell, Lisa M. & Bao, Yanjun, 2009. "Food prices, access to food outlets and child weight," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 64-72, March.
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    5. Beydoun, May A. & Powell, Lisa M. & Wang, Youfa, 2008. "The association of fast food, fruit and vegetable prices with dietary intakes among US adults: Is there modification by family income?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(11), pages 2218-2229, June.
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    11. Moore, L.V. & Diez Roux, A.V., 2006. "Associations of neighborhood characteristics with the location and type of food stores," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 96(2), pages 325-331.
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    14. Powell, Lisa M., 2009. "Fast food costs and adolescent body mass index: Evidence from panel data," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 963-970, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ver Ploeg, Michele & Wilde, Parke E., 2018. "How do food retail choices vary within and between food retail environments?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 300-308.
    2. Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm & Ye Zhang & David B. Estell & Neil H. Perdue, 2017. "Raising charitable children: the effects of verbal socialization and role-modeling on children’s giving," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 30(1), pages 189-224, January.
    3. Ver Ploeg, Michele L. & Mancino, Lisa & Dicken, Christopher W. & Farrigan, Tracey L. & Hertz, Thomas, 2017. "An Analysis of Exposure to Poor Food Environments and Diet-Related Health Outcomes," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258218, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Buttet, Sebastien & Dolar, Veronika, 2015. "The Price Of One Sweet Calorie," International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics (IJFAEC), Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Department of Economics and Finance, vol. 3(4), pages 1-14, October.
    5. Powell, Lisa M. & Wada, Roy & Krauss, Ramona C. & Wang, Youfa, 2012. "Ethnic disparities in adolescent body mass index in the United States: The role of parental socioeconomic status and economic contextual factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 469-476.
    6. Guy E.J. Faulkner & Paul Grootendorst & Van Hai Nguyen & Tatiana Andreyeva & Kelly Arbour-Nicitopoulos & Chris Auld & Sean B. Cash & John Cawley & Peter Donnelly & Adam Drewnowski & Laurette Dubé & R, 2011. "Economic Instruments for Obesity Prevention: Results of a Scoping Review and Modified Delphi Survey," Monash Economics Working Papers 31-11, Monash University, Department of Economics.

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    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health

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