title: Relative food prices and obesity in US Metropolitan areas: 1976-2001.
abstract: This study investigates the impact of food price on obesity, by exploring the co-occurrence of obesity growth with relative food price reduction between 1976 and 2001. Analyses control for female labor participation and metropolitan outlet densities that might affect body weight. Both the first-difference and fixed effects approaches provide consistent evidence suggesting that relative food prices have substantial impacts on obesity and such impacts were more pronounced among the low-educated. These findings imply that relative food price reductions during the time period could plausibly explain about 18% of the increase in obesity among the U.S. adults in metropolitan areas.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Food Economics Division, Economic Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jayachandran N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Variyam
authors.affiliation: Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Zhenxiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Institute for Health Research and Policy, Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago, National Bureau of Economic Research, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Frank J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Chaloupka
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002947:Cities / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003132:Commerce / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005502:Food / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult