Arbeitspapier

Does Money Burn Fat? – Evidence from a Randomized Experiment

We test whether financial incentives have an effect on weight reduction in a randomized controlled trial involving 700 obese persons assigned to three experimental groups. While two treatment groups obtain €150 and €300, respectively, for achieving an individually assigned target weight within four months, a control group receives no such premium. The results indicate that the weight losses for the treatment groups are 2.6 and 2.9 percentage points higher than that achieved by the control group, raising the average total weight loss for the incentivized groups to 5 percent of the initial weight. This percentage is typically regarded as a threshold to improve the health status of the obese. Further evidence indeed indicates some health improvements. The higher reward causes only the group of obese women to lose more weight. Overall, the results suggest that financial incentives can motivate people to lose weight significantly.

ISBN
978-3-86788-423-5
Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: Ruhr Economic Papers ; No. 368

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Health: General
Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
Taxation and Subsidies: Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
Field Experiments
Thema
randomized experiment
financial incentives for weight loss
obesity
nonrandom sample attrition
effect heterogeneity

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Augurzky, Boris
Bauer, Thomas K.
Reichert, Arndt R.
Schmidt, Christoph M.
Tauchmann, Harald
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (RWI)
(wo)
Essen
(wann)
2012

DOI
doi:10.4419/86788423
Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:45 MEZ

Datenpartner

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Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Augurzky, Boris
  • Bauer, Thomas K.
  • Reichert, Arndt R.
  • Schmidt, Christoph M.
  • Tauchmann, Harald
  • Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (RWI)

Entstanden

  • 2012

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