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Exploring the relationship between time preference, body fatness, and educational attainment

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  • Brown, Heather
  • Biosca, Olga

Abstract

Obesity is a global health concern. This is the first study to explore if the relationship between body fatness and time preference is consistent across different ways of objectively measuring body fatness. Our second aim is to explore if there are differential associations between educational attainment and being a saver to determine if education can be used to change saving behaviour and subsequently body fatness. This paper uses data on 15,591 individuals from 2010/2011 of the Understanding Society Survey (UK) to explore the relationship between time preference, measured as being a saver and three objective measures of body fatness: BMI, percent body fatness (PBF), and waist circumference (WC). Our findings show that there is a negative relationship between the three measures of body fatness and being a saver. The strongest relationship is found for WC and being a saver for both genders. Overall, a stronger association is found for women than men. Our results suggest that differential effects by educational attainment can be found in the relationship between being a saver and body fatness. Educational interventions to improve savings behaviour and subsequently obesity may be more effective for women with lower levels of education.

Suggested Citation

  • Brown, Heather & Biosca, Olga, 2016. "Exploring the relationship between time preference, body fatness, and educational attainment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 75-85.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:158:y:2016:i:c:p:75-85
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.04.016
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    Cited by:

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    2. Smyth, Laura J. & Cruise, Sharon M. & Tang, Jianjun & Young, Ian & McGuinness, Bernadette & Kee, Frank & McKnight, Amy Jayne, 2023. "Differential methylation in CD44 and SEC23A is associated with time preference in older individuals," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    3. Karen Pickering & Mark Monahan & Alessandra Guariglia & Tracy E Roberts, 2017. "Time to tighten the belts? Exploring the relationship between savings and obesity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(6), pages 1-23, June.
    4. Chiara Pastore & Stefanie Schurer & Agnieszka Tymula & Nicholas Fuller & Ian Caterson, 2023. "Economic preferences and obesity: Evidence from a clinical lab‐in‐field study," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(9), pages 2147-2167, September.
    5. Pastore, Chiara & Schurer, Stefanie & Tymula, Agnieszka & Fuller, Nicholas & Caterson, Ian, 2020. "Economic Preferences and Obesity: Evidence from a Clinical Lab-in-Field Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 13915, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Guariglia, Alessandra & Monahan, Mark & Pickering, Karen & Roberts, Tracy, 2021. "Financial health and obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).

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