The obesity epidemic has received widespread media and research attention. However, the social phenomenon of obesity is still not well understood. Data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) show positive and significant correlations in spousal body mass index (<italic>BMI</italic>). This article...

Attempts to test the relative deprivation hypothesis, that income inequality affects individual health, are subject to the aggregation problem. Waldmann (Quarterly Journal of Economics 107, 1992) ingeniously attempts to overcome the difficulty by using income data for the poor and the share of...