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Labour market, obesity and public policy considerations

Author

Listed:
  • Konstantinos Eleftheriou

    (College of Business Administration, Abu Dhabi University, United Arab Emirates)

  • George Athanasiou

    (Department of Mathematics, National Technical University of Athens, Greece)

  • Periklis Kougoulis

    (College of Business Administration, Abu Dhabi University, United Arab Emirates)

Abstract

This paper attempts to investigate the relation among wages, unemployment, obesity and to identify public policies to address the problem of over-weightness. To this purpose, a simple search and matching model of labour market is developed. Our framework tries to capture the relationship between obesity and employment/unemployment by assuming that the fraction of obese workers is a function of the ratio of vacant jobs to unemployment (labour market tightness). We argue that if obesity is positively related with employment, then socially optimality dictates the imposition of a lump-sum tax on all individuals. In the opposite case a subsidy should be given.

Suggested Citation

  • Konstantinos Eleftheriou & George Athanasiou & Periklis Kougoulis, 2013. "Labour market, obesity and public policy considerations," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(1), pages 783-793.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-12-00829
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Obesity; Taxation; Unemployment; Wages;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers

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