Summary
Program Report
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Health economics.
The NBER's Program in Health Economics focuses on the determinants of health. Two areas of particular interest are the economics of obesity and the economics of substance use. The program members' research has been widely supported by federal research grants and by private foundations.
The Economics of Obesity Genetic factors cannot account for the rapid increase in obesity since 1980--these factors change slowly over long periods of time. Therefore, economists have a role to play in examining the determinants and consequences of this trend, even though the factors at work are complex, and the policy prescriptions are by no means straightforward. Childhood obesity is especially detrimental, because its effects carry over into adulthood. Shin Yi-Chou, Inas Rashad, and I estimate the effects of fast-food restaurant advertising on television on obesity among children and adolescents. (1) Our results suggest that a ban on these advertisements would reduce the number of obese children ages 3-11 in a fixed population by 18 percent and would reduce the number of obese adolescents ages 12-18 by 14 percent. Eliminating the tax deductibility of this type of advertising would produce smaller declines of between 5 and 7 percent in these outcomes, but would impose lower costs on children and adults who consume fast food in moderation because positive information about restaurants that supply this type of food would not be completely banned from television. Robert Kaesmer and Xin Xu examine the association between girls' participation in high school sports and the physical activity, weight, and body mass and body composition of adolescent females during the 1970s when girls' sports participation was dramatically increasing as a result of Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972. (2) Title IX requires that programs and activities that receive funds from the Department of Education must ope...See the full content of this document
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