Obesity is not only a health but also an economic phenomenon with potentially important direct and indirect economic costs that are unlikely to be fully internalized by the obese. In the US, obesity prevalence is the highest among OECD countries and the issue has long been the focus of policy...

We provide comparable evidence on the patterns and trends in obesity across the Atlantic and analyse whether there are economic rationales for public intervention to control obesity. We take into account equity issues as well as efficiency considerations, which are organized around three...