How does body mass index affect economic growth? A comparative analysis of countries by levels of economic development

The WHO views obesity as a significant risk to population health. Evidence suggests that obesity reduces labor-market attachment, worker productivity, and earnings. This link at the micro level may translate into adverse effects on economic growth at the macro level. Few studies have evaluated how b...

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Main Authors: Kelly, Inas R, Doytch, Nadia, Dave, Dhaval
Format: text
Published: Archīum Ateneo 2019
Subjects:
GDP
Online Access:https://archium.ateneo.edu/asog-pubs/20
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X18302624?casa_token=jcQk7cluKh0AAAAA:Np1FMJpFmoqfbpZ6-RCdCA0hyo4FMlppxEIPvVxuxqFgBICCBjYvxIefzwc0yHrHmGnRRlgKieQ#!
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Institution: Ateneo De Manila University
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spelling ph-ateneo-arc.asog-pubs-10252020-05-29T07:08:56Z How does body mass index affect economic growth? A comparative analysis of countries by levels of economic development Kelly, Inas R Doytch, Nadia Dave, Dhaval The WHO views obesity as a significant risk to population health. Evidence suggests that obesity reduces labor-market attachment, worker productivity, and earnings. This link at the micro level may translate into adverse effects on economic growth at the macro level. Few studies have evaluated how body mass index impacts economic growth across and within countries. This sparse evidence base reflects the lack of consistent data across a broad spectrum of countries and timespan, as well as the empirical difficulties in bypassing endogeneity bias relating to unobserved selection and potential reverse causality between bodyweight and GDP. We address both of these challenges by first assembling a comprehensive panel of data spanning 116 countries over 25 years (1984–2008), and then presenting, to the best of our knowledge, the first empirical study of economic growth and obesiy correcting for endogeneity. Our GMM estimates indicate that, in developed countries, a higher level of BMI has direct negative effects on economic growth in a fully saturated model that controls for levels of human capital. In particular, we predict that the increase in BMI over the time period of analysis may have reduced potential economic growth over this period by between 3.5–5.8 percentage points. 2019-01-01T08:00:00Z text https://archium.ateneo.edu/asog-pubs/20 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X18302624?casa_token=jcQk7cluKh0AAAAA:Np1FMJpFmoqfbpZ6-RCdCA0hyo4FMlppxEIPvVxuxqFgBICCBjYvxIefzwc0yHrHmGnRRlgKieQ#! Ateneo School of Government Faculty Publications Archīum Ateneo Economic growth Obesity Body mass index GDP Health Development Economic Policy Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
institution Ateneo De Manila University
building Ateneo De Manila University Library
country Philippines
collection archium.Ateneo Institutional Repository
topic Economic growth
Obesity
Body mass index
GDP
Health
Development
Economic Policy
Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
spellingShingle Economic growth
Obesity
Body mass index
GDP
Health
Development
Economic Policy
Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
Kelly, Inas R
Doytch, Nadia
Dave, Dhaval
How does body mass index affect economic growth? A comparative analysis of countries by levels of economic development
description The WHO views obesity as a significant risk to population health. Evidence suggests that obesity reduces labor-market attachment, worker productivity, and earnings. This link at the micro level may translate into adverse effects on economic growth at the macro level. Few studies have evaluated how body mass index impacts economic growth across and within countries. This sparse evidence base reflects the lack of consistent data across a broad spectrum of countries and timespan, as well as the empirical difficulties in bypassing endogeneity bias relating to unobserved selection and potential reverse causality between bodyweight and GDP. We address both of these challenges by first assembling a comprehensive panel of data spanning 116 countries over 25 years (1984–2008), and then presenting, to the best of our knowledge, the first empirical study of economic growth and obesiy correcting for endogeneity. Our GMM estimates indicate that, in developed countries, a higher level of BMI has direct negative effects on economic growth in a fully saturated model that controls for levels of human capital. In particular, we predict that the increase in BMI over the time period of analysis may have reduced potential economic growth over this period by between 3.5–5.8 percentage points.
format text
author Kelly, Inas R
Doytch, Nadia
Dave, Dhaval
author_facet Kelly, Inas R
Doytch, Nadia
Dave, Dhaval
author_sort Kelly, Inas R
title How does body mass index affect economic growth? A comparative analysis of countries by levels of economic development
title_short How does body mass index affect economic growth? A comparative analysis of countries by levels of economic development
title_full How does body mass index affect economic growth? A comparative analysis of countries by levels of economic development
title_fullStr How does body mass index affect economic growth? A comparative analysis of countries by levels of economic development
title_full_unstemmed How does body mass index affect economic growth? A comparative analysis of countries by levels of economic development
title_sort how does body mass index affect economic growth? a comparative analysis of countries by levels of economic development
publisher Archīum Ateneo
publishDate 2019
url https://archium.ateneo.edu/asog-pubs/20
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X18302624?casa_token=jcQk7cluKh0AAAAA:Np1FMJpFmoqfbpZ6-RCdCA0hyo4FMlppxEIPvVxuxqFgBICCBjYvxIefzwc0yHrHmGnRRlgKieQ#!
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