Estimation of a dynamic model of weight
By: Shu Wen Ng, Edward C. Norton, David K. Guilkey, Barry M. Popkin
Contributors: National Bureau of Economic Research
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 15864; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 15864.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "The NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health provides summaries of publications like this.  You can sign up to receive the NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health by email.  The ongoing debate about the economic causes of obesity has focused on the changing relative prices of diet and exercise.  This paper uses a model that explicitly includes time and spatially varying community-level urbanicity and price measures as instruments to obtain statistically correct measures for the endogenous effects of diet, physical activity, drinking, and smoking on weight.  We apply a dynamic panel system GMM estimation model to longitudinal (1991-2006) data from China to model weight and find that among adult men in China, about 6.1% of weight gain was due to declines in physical activity and 2.9-3.8% was due to dietary changes over this period.  In the long run, physical activity can account for around 6.9% of weight gain, while diet can account for 3.2-4.2% of weight gain"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 4/8/2010.

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