Arbeitspapier
Imitative obesity and relative utility
If human beings care about their relative weight, a form of imitative obesity can emerge (in which people subconsciously keep up with the weight of the Joneses). Using Eurobarometer data on 29 countries, this paper provides cross-sectional evidence that overweight perceptions and dieting are influenced by a person's relative BMI, and longitudinal evidence from the German Socioeconomic Panel that well-being is influenced by relative BMI. Highly educated people see themselves as fatter - at any given actual weight - than those with low education. These results should be treated cautiously, and fixed-effects estimates are not always well-determined, but there are grounds to take seriously the possibility of socially contagious obesity.
- Sprache
-
Englisch
- Erschienen in
-
Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 4010
- Klassifikation
-
Wirtschaft
Health Behavior
General Welfare; Well-Being
- Thema
-
Body mass index BMI
comparisons
imitation
happiness
peer effects
dieting
mental health
well-being
obesity
Ernährungsgewohnheit
Gesundheit
Soziale Schicht
Lebenszufriedenheit
Europa
- Ereignis
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (wer)
-
Blanchflower, David G.
Oswald, Andrew J.
Van Landeghem, Bert
- Ereignis
-
Veröffentlichung
- (wer)
-
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
- (wo)
-
Bonn
- (wann)
-
2009
- Handle
- URN
-
urn:nbn:de:101:1-20090304422
- Letzte Aktualisierung
-
10.03.2025, 11:42 MEZ
Datenpartner
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Objekttyp
- Arbeitspapier
Beteiligte
- Blanchflower, David G.
- Oswald, Andrew J.
- Van Landeghem, Bert
- Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Entstanden
- 2009
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