IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/agribz/v23y2007i3p421-434.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Obesity and low-carb diets in the united states: A herd behavior model

Author

Listed:
  • Dragan Miljkovic

    (Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5636)

  • Daniel Mostad

    (ConAgra Trade Group, Omaha, NE 68102)

Abstract

We propose that consumer herding is a plausible explanation of the popularity of low-carb diets in the United States. This proposition was empirically tested using per capita consumption of both broilers and eggs as proxies of the popularity of low-carb diets. Results confirm that people do not always make (perfectly) rational choices, even when a good signal or correct information is available to them. Instead, they choose to do what everyone else is doing. In addition, we could not conclusively determine that an increase in media reports about low-carb diets led to further increase in the popularity of low-carb diets. [JEL: D12, D82, Q18]. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 23: 421-434, 2007.

Suggested Citation

  • Dragan Miljkovic & Daniel Mostad, 2007. "Obesity and low-carb diets in the united states: A herd behavior model," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(3), pages 421-434.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:agribz:v:23:y:2007:i:3:p:421-434
    DOI: 10.1002/agr.20131
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/agr.20131
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/agr.20131?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Darius Lakdawalla & Tomas Philipson, 2002. "The Growth of Obesity and Technological Change: A Theoretical and Empirical Examination," Working Papers 0203, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago.
    2. James S. Eales & Laurian J. Unnevehr, 1988. "Demand for Beef and Chicken Products: Separability and Structural Change," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 70(3), pages 521-532.
    3. John M. Marsh, 2003. "Impacts of Declining U.S. Retail Beef Demand on Farm-Level Beef Prices and Production," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 85(4), pages 902-913.
    4. Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel, 1992. "Advances in Prospect Theory: Cumulative Representation of Uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 297-323, October.
    5. Susan Averett & Sanders Korenman, 1996. "The Economic Reality of the Beauty Myth," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 31(2), pages 304-330.
    6. Bulow, Jeremy & Klemperer, Paul, 1994. "Rational Frenzies and Crashes," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(1), pages 1-23, February.
    7. Laura L. Veldkamp, 2006. "Media Frenzies in Markets for Financial Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(3), pages 577-601, June.
    8. Johansen, Soren & Juselius, Katarina, 1994. "Identification of the long-run and the short-run structure an application to the ISLM model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 7-36, July.
    9. Johansen, Soren, 1995. "Likelihood-Based Inference in Cointegrated Vector Autoregressive Models," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198774501, Decembrie.
    10. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Devenow, Andrea & Welch, Ivo, 1996. "Rational herding in financial economics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-5), pages 603-615, April.
    12. Abhijit V. Banerjee, 1992. "A Simple Model of Herd Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 797-817.
    13. Patricia M. Anderson & Kristin F. Butcher & Phillip B. Levine, 2003. "Economic perspectives on childhood obesity," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 27(Q III), pages 30-48.
    14. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    15. Johansen, Soren, 1991. "Estimation and Hypothesis Testing of Cointegration Vectors in Gaussian Vector Autoregressive Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(6), pages 1551-1580, November.
    16. Jain, Arvind K & Gupta, Satyadev, 1987. "Some Evidence on 'Herding' Behavior of U.S. Banks," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 19(1), pages 78-89, February.
    17. Hall, Alastair R, 1994. "Testing for a Unit Root in Time Series with Pretest Data-Based Model Selection," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 12(4), pages 461-470, October.
    18. Hoyer, Wayne D & Brown, Steven P, 1990. "Effects of Brand Awareness on Choice for a Common, Repeat-Purchase Product," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 17(2), pages 141-148, September.
    19. John Cawley, 2000. "Body Weight and Women's Labor Market Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 7841, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Lopez Barrera, Emiliano & Shively, Gerald, 2022. "Excess calorie availability and adult BMI: A cohort analysis of patterns and trends for 156 countries from 1890 to 2015," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Miljkovic, Dragan & Mostad, Daniel, 2005. "Impact of Changes in Dietary Preferences on U.S. Retail Demand for Beef: Health Concerns and the Role of Media," Journal of Agribusiness, Agricultural Economics Association of Georgia, vol. 23(2), pages 1-16.
    2. Jonathan E. Alevy & Michael S. Haigh & John List, 2006. "Information Cascades: Evidence from An Experiment with Financial Market Professionals," NBER Working Papers 12767, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Steve Furnagiev & Josh Stillwagon, 2015. "Subjective Currency Risk Premia and Deviations from Moving Averages," Working Papers 1506, Trinity College, Department of Economics.
    4. Coskun, Esra Alp & Lau, Chi Keung Marco & Kahyaoglu, Hakan, 2020. "Uncertainty and herding behavior: evidence from cryptocurrencies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    5. Imed Medhioub & Mustapha Chaffai, 2019. "Islamic Finance and Herding Behavior Theory: A Sectoral Analysis for Gulf Islamic Stock Market," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-11, November.
    6. Josh Stillwagon, 2013. "Are Risk Premia Related to Real Exchange Rate Swings? Survey Expectations and I(2) Trends," Working Papers 1318, Trinity College, Department of Economics.
    7. Piergiorgio Alessandri, 2004. "Aggregate Consumption and the Stock Market: Should We Worry about Non-linear Wealth Effects?," Birkbeck Working Papers in Economics and Finance 0410, Birkbeck, Department of Economics, Mathematics & Statistics.
    8. Demirer, Rıza & Kutan, Ali M. & Zhang, Huacheng, 2014. "Do ADR investors herd?: Evidence from advanced and emerging markets," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 138-148.
    9. Steven Haryanto & Athor Subroto & Maria Ulpah, 2020. "Disposition effect and herding behavior in the cryptocurrency market," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 47(1), pages 115-132, March.
    10. Rajdeep Kumar Raut & Niladri Das & Ramkrishna Mishra, 2020. "Behaviour of Individual Investors in Stock Market Trading: Evidence from India," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 21(3), pages 818-833, June.
    11. Marek Jenöffy-Lochau, 2023. "Preference Formation and Economic Theory," Working Papers hal-04139498, HAL.
    12. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Zeng, Jhih-Hong, 2011. "Revisiting the relationship between spot and futures oil prices: Evidence from quantile cointegrating regression," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 924-935, September.
    13. Andreas Park & Daniel Sgroi, 2008. "Herding and Contrarianism in a Financial Trading Experiment with Endogenous Timing," Working Papers tecipa-341, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    14. Savage David A., 2016. "Surviving the Storm: Behavioural Economics in the Conflict Environment," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 22(2), pages 105-129, April.
    15. Bell, David N.F. & Hart, Robert A., 2010. "Retire Later or Work Harder?," IZA Discussion Papers 4720, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Kamada, Koichiro & Kurosaki, Tetsuo & Miura, Ko & Yamada, Tetsuya, 2022. "Central bank policy announcements and changes in trading behavior: Evidence from bond futures high frequency price data," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    17. Simões Vieira, Elisabete F. & Valente Pereira, Márcia S., 2015. "Herding behaviour and sentiment: Evidence in a small European market," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 78-86.
    18. Josh Stillwagon, 2013. "The Excess Returns Puzzle in Currency Markets: Clues on Moving Forward," Working Papers 1313, Trinity College, Department of Economics.
    19. Marek Jenöffy-Lochau, 2013. "Information, Credibility, and Endogenous Preferences," Post-Print hal-04139636, HAL.
    20. Demirer, Riza & Kutan, Ali M. & Chen, Chun-Da, 2010. "Do investors herd in emerging stock markets?: Evidence from the Taiwanese market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 283-295, November.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

    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:wly:agribz:v:23:y:2007:i:3:p:421-434. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1520-6297 .

    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.