IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/jeurec/v23y2025i5p1669-1711..html

Chain Restaurant Calorie Posting Laws, Obesity, and Consumer Welfare

Author

Listed:
  • Charles Courtemanche
  • David Frisvold
  • David Jimenez-Gomez
  • Mariétou H Ouayogodé
  • Michael K Price

Abstract

This paper investigates whether and why laws requiring chain restaurants to post calories on menus and menu boards work. We develop a model of calories consumed that highlights multiple potential channels through which these laws influence choice and that outlines an empirical strategy to disentangle these alternatives. We test the predictions of our model using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System on body mass index and consumer well-being, as well as our own surveys on how the law influences where people eat and how randomized exposure to calorie information affects feelings toward menu items. Viewed in its totality, our results are consistent with an economic model in which calorie labels influence consumers both by providing salient information and by imposing a welfare-reducing moral cost (or feelings of guilt) on unhealthy eating.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles Courtemanche & David Frisvold & David Jimenez-Gomez & Mariétou H Ouayogodé & Michael K Price, 2025. "Chain Restaurant Calorie Posting Laws, Obesity, and Consumer Welfare," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 23(5), pages 1669-1711.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jeurec:v:23:y:2025:i:5:p:1669-1711.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jeea/jvaf004
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lawrence Jin & Don Kenkel & Michael Lovenheim & Alan Mathios & Hua Wang, 2024. "Misinformation, consumer risk perceptions, and markets: The impact of an information shock on vaping and smoking cessation," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(4), pages 1652-1678, October.
    2. Jessica E. Todd & Lisa Mancino & Brandon J. Restrepo & Claudine Kavanaugh & Chris Dicken & Vince Breneman, 2021. "Food Away From Home And Caloric Intake: The Role Of Restaurant Menu Labeling Laws," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(1), pages 53-71, January.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:jeurec:v:23:y:2025:i:5:p:1669-1711.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/jeea .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.