Problems of overweight and obesity among children have increased in China and pose a problem both for individuals as well as for public social and health care systems. This study explores factors contributing to weight problems among children age 6 to 18 years old in urban China. Data come from...

The effects on purchases of ice cream of increasing the value added tax (VAT) for less healthy foods and removing the VAT for healthy foods are estimated. The effects on high- and low-purchasing households are estimated by using quantile regressions. Many households did not purchase ice cream...

This paper provides quantitative estimates of the effect of proximity to fast food restaurants and grocery stores on obesity in urban food markets. Our empirical model combined georeferenced micro data on access to fast food restaurants and grocery stores with data about salient personal...

We extend the existing literature on food taxes targeting obesity. First, we incorporate the implicit substitution between sugar and fat nutrients implied by a complete food demand system and by conditioning on how food taxes affect total calorie intake. Second, we propose a methodology that...

Behavioral economists maintain that addictions such as alcoholism, smoking and over-eating represent examples of present-bias in decision making that is fundamentally irrational. In this article, we develop a model of present bias and apparently hyperbolic discounting that is fully consistent...

Taxing sugar-sweetened beverages has been proposed as a means to reduce calorie intake, improve diet and health, and generate revenue that governments can use to address the obesity-caused health and economic burden. Two beverage demand systems were estimated using beverage purchase data for...

This study confirms that eating food away from home (FAFH) adversely affects dietary intake. By looking at changes within individuals’ dietary intake over two days, thus controlling for self-selection issues, we find that FAFH causes increased caloric intake and reduced diet quality. Our...

This study analyses whether Russian households differ in their choice of food quality when they differ in their number of overweight and obese members. Using survey data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) for the years 1995-2005, households are classified into three weight...

This paper examines the health effects of a fiscal food policy based on a combination of fat taxes and thin subsidies. The fat tax is based on the saturated fat content of food items while the thin subsidy is applied to select fruit and vegetable items. The policy is designed to be revenue...