Arbeitspapier
Habit formation, obesity, and cash rewards
This paper examines weight loss and the formation of healthy habits through cash rewards in the context of a multi-phase randomized controlled trial involving 700 obese individuals. We find effects of monetary incentives for weight loss of up to EUR 300 on body weight during all experimental phases, including a period of a year and a half following the exposure to the financial rewards. We also find effects on healthy behavior during this follow-up phase. After the initial incentive period, we additionally provided participants who had lost a substantial amount of weight with monetary rewards of up to EUR 500. These had only short-term effects on body weight and healthy behavior. We argue that our findings are best explained by monetarily incentivized participants having formed healthy habits by the time the experiment ended and that only the speed of the transition to the new (health) equilibrium was affected by the additional rewards. Contrary to the pessimistic perspective presented in earlier empirical research on habit formation, our results suggest that a simple program relying on weight loss rewards can result in long-term health behavioral change.
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: FAU Discussion Papers in Economics ; No. 06/2018
- Classification
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Wirtschaft
Health Behavior
Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
Field Experiments
- Subject
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field experiment
obesity
healthy behavior
habit formation
sustainability
monetary incentives
- Event
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
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Augurzky, Boris
Bauer, Thomas K.
Reichert, Arndt R.
Schmidt, Christoph M.
Tauchmann, Harald
- Event
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Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Institute for Economics
- (where)
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Nürnberg
- (when)
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2018
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Augurzky, Boris
- Bauer, Thomas K.
- Reichert, Arndt R.
- Schmidt, Christoph M.
- Tauchmann, Harald
- Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Institute for Economics
Time of origin
- 2018
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Habit formation, obesity, and cash rewards
Small Cash Rewards for Big Losers – Experimental Insights Into the Fight Against the Obesity Epidemic
Less Social Health Insurance – More Private Supplementary Insurance? – Empirical Evidence from Germany
Solidarische Gesundheitsversorgung erhalten: Bürgerversicherung einführen. Antrag der Fraktion der SPD und der Fraktion BÜNDNIS90/DIE GRÜNEN, Drucksache 15/854. Stellungnahme zur öffentlichen Anhörung des Ausschusses für Arbeit, Gesundheit, Soziales und Integration des Landtags Nordrhein-Westfalen am 13. Juli 2011
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The Effect of Self-assessed Job Security on the Demand for Medical Rehab
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