Young Adult Obesity and Household Income: Effects of Unconditional Cash Transfers.
We investigate the effect of household cash transfers during childhood on young adult body mass indexes (BMI). The effects of extra income differ depending on the household's initial socioeconomic status (SES). Children from the initially poorest households have a larger increase in BMI relative to children from initially wealthier households. Several alternative mechanisms are examined. Initial SES holds up as the most likely channel behind the heterogeneous effects of extra income on young adult BMI. (JEL D14, H23, H75, I12, J13, J15).
Department of Public Policy, University of California-Los Angeles, 3250 Public Affairs Building, Los Angeles, CA 90095 ( rakee@ucla.edu ).
Randall
R
Akee
Tufts University Economics Department, 8 Upper Campus Road, Braker Hall, Medford, MA 02155 ( emilia.simeonova@tufts.edu ), Center for Health and Wellbeing, Princeton University, and National Bureau of Economic Research.
Emilia
E
Simeonova
Center for Developmental Epidemiology, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Box 3454, Durham, NC 27710 ( william.copeland@duke.edu ).
William
W
Copeland
Center for Developmental Epidemiology, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Box 3454, Durham, NC 27710 ( adrian.angold@duke.edu ).
Adrian
A
Angold
Center for Developmental Epidemiology, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Box 3454, Durham, NC 27710 ( jcostello@psych.duhs.duke.edu ).
E Jane
EJ
Costello