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Causal effects of socioeconomic status on central adiposity risks: Evidence using panel data from urban Mexico

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  • Pierre Levasseur

    (GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

Associated with overweight, obesity and chronic diseases, the nutrition transition process reveals important socioeconomic issues in Mexico. Using panel data from the Mexican Family Life Survey, the purpose of the study is to estimate the causal effect of household socioeconomic status (SES) on nutritional outcomes among urban adults. We divide the analysis into two steps. First, using a mixed clustering procedure, we distinguish four socioeconomic classes based on income, educational and occupational dimensions: (i) a poor class; (ii) a lower–middle class; (iii) an upper–middle class; (iv) a rich class. Second, using an econometric framework adapted to our study (the Hausman-Taylor estimator), we measure the impact of belonging to these socioeconomic groups on individual anthropometric indicators, based on the body-mass index (BMI) and the waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). Our results make several contributions: (i) we show that a new middle class, rising out of poverty, is the most exposed to the risks of adiposity; (ii) as individuals from the upper class seem to be fatter than individuals from the upper–middle class, we can reject the assumption of an inverted U-shaped relationship between socioeconomic and anthropometric status as commonly suggested in emerging economies; (iii) the influence of SES on central adiposity appears to be particularly strong for men.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

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  • Pierre Levasseur, 2014. "Causal effects of socioeconomic status on central adiposity risks: Evidence using panel data from urban Mexico," Post-Print hal-02273941, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02273941
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    7. John Cawley, 2004. "The Impact of Obesity on Wages," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(2).
    8. Bonnefond, Céline & Clément, Matthieu, 2014. "Social class and body weight among Chinese urban adults: The role of the middle classes in the nutrition transition," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 22-29.
    9. Costa-Font, Joan & Hernández-Quevedo, Cristina & Jiménez-Rubio, Dolores, 2014. "Income inequalities in unhealthy life styles in England and Spain," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 66-75.
    10. Birdsall, Nancy & Lustig, Nora & Meyer, Christian J., 2014. "The Strugglers: The New Poor in Latin America?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 132-146.
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    Cited by:

    1. Bertille Daran & Pierre Levasseur & Matthieu Clément, 2023. "Updating the association between socioeconomic status and obesity in low‐income and lower‐middle‐income sub‐Saharan African countries: A literature review," Post-Print hal-04157386, HAL.
    2. Valentina Alvarez-Saavedra & Pierre Levasseur & Suneha Seetahul, 2023. "The Role of Gender Inequality in the Obesity Epidemic: A Case Study from India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(7), pages 980-996, July.
    3. Pierre LEVASSEUR, 2016. "The effects of bodyweight on wages in urban Mexico," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2016-18, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    4. Clément, Matthieu & Levasseur, Pierre & Seetahul, Suneha & Piaser, Lucie, 2021. "Does inequality have a silver lining? Municipal income inequality and obesity in Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    5. Daran, Bertille & Levasseur, Pierre, 2022. "Is overweight still a problem of rich in sub-Saharan Africa? Insights based on female-oriented demographic and health surveys," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    6. Pierre Levasseur & François Mariotti & Isabelle Denis & Olga Davidenko, 2022. "The association between meat consumption and body mass index varies according to the socioeconomic status in a representative sample of French adults," Working Papers hal-03744721, HAL.
    7. Wu, Hania Fei, 2021. "Social determination, health selection or indirect selection? Examining the causal directions between socioeconomic status and obesity in the Chinese adult population," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    8. Levasseur, Pierre, 2017. "The ambiguous causal relationship between body-mass and labour income in emerging economies: The case of Mexico," MPRA Paper 81933, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Weidong Li & Shuzhuo Li & Marcus W. Feldman, 2021. "Socioeconomic Status, Institutional Power, and Body Mass Index among Chinese Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-19, October.
    10. Levasseur, Pierre, 2019. "Can social programs break the vicious cycle between poverty and obesity? Evidence from urban Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 143-156.
    11. Esposito, Lucio & Villaseñor, Adrián & Rodríguez, Enrique Cuevas & Millett, Christopher, 2020. "The economic gradient of obesity in Mexico: Independent predictive roles of absolute and relative wealth by gender," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).

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    Keywords

    social class; obesity; Mexique;
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