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Happy House: Spousal weight and individual well-being

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  • Clark, A.;
  • Etilé, F.;

Abstract

We use life satisfaction and Body Mass Index (BMI) information from three waves of the GSOEP to test for social interactions in BMI between spouses. Semi-parametric regressions show that partner’s BMI is, beyond a certain level, negatively correlated with own satisfaction. Own BMI is positively correlated with satisfaction in thin men, and negatively correlated with satisfaction after some threshold. Critically, this latter threshold increases with partner’s BMI when the individual is overweight. The negative well-being impact of own BMI is thus lower when the individual’s partner is heavier. This is consistent with social contagion effects in weight. However, this cross-partial effect is insignificant in instrumental variable regressions, suggesting that the uninstrumented relationship reflects selection on the marriage market or omitted variables, rather than contagion.

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Paper provided by HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York in its series Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers with number 10/10.

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Date of creation: Jun 2010
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Handle: RePEc:yor:hectdg:10/10

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Web page: http://www.york.ac.uk/res/herc/research/hedg/
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Keywords: Obesity; subjective well-being; BMI; social interactions;

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Abel Brodeur, 2012. "Smoking, Income and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Smoking Bans," PSE Working Papers halshs-00664269, HAL.
  2. N Powdthavee, 2008. "Ill-Health as a Household Norm: Evidence from Other People's Health Problems," Discussion Papers 08/21, Department of Economics, University of York.
  3. Clark, Andrew E. & Etilé, Fabrice, 2010. "Happy House: Spousal Weight and Individual Well-Being," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 1001, CEPREMAP.
  4. Clark, Andrew E., 2011. "Happiness, Habits and High Rank: Comparisons in Economic and Social Life," IZA Discussion Papers 5966, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  5. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve & Robert J. B. Goudie & Sach Mukherjee & Andrew J. Oswald & Stephen Wu, 2012. "Happiness as a Driver of Risk-Avoiding Behavior," CEP Discussion Papers dp1126, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
  6. Blázquez, Maite & Budría, Santiago, 2011. "Deprivation and Subjective Well-being: Evidence from Panel Data," Working Papers in Economic Theory 2011/08, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), Department of Economic Analysis (Economic Theory and Economic History).
  7. Abel Brodeur, 2012. "Smoking, Income and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Smoking Bans," Working Papers halshs-00664269, HAL.

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