IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea14/170387.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Peer-Effects on Childhood Obesity: An Instrumental Variables Approach on Exogenously Assigned Peers

Author

Listed:
  • Asirvatham, Jebaraj
  • Thomsen, Michael
  • Nayga, Rodolfo M. Jr.
  • Rouse, Heather

Abstract

This study investigates whether peers are a contributing factor in childhood body-weight outcomes. Using an instrumental variables method on exogenously assigned peers, we find that the weight of peers within the same grade and school significantly impacts body mass index (BMI) z-score of an individual student. A typical student’s BMI z-score increases when facing heavier peers. The size of the peer-effect, however, is very modest. For a percentage point increase in the proportion of obese students in the same grade, a typical student’s BMI z-score increases by only 0.00341 standard deviations.

Suggested Citation

  • Asirvatham, Jebaraj & Thomsen, Michael & Nayga, Rodolfo M. Jr. & Rouse, Heather, 2014. "Peer-Effects on Childhood Obesity: An Instrumental Variables Approach on Exogenously Assigned Peers," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170387, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea14:170387
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.170387
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/170387/files/Asirvatham_Thomsen_Nayga_Rouse_Peer-effects%20in%20childhood%20obesity.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.170387?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. Charles F. Manski, 1993. "Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(3), pages 531-542.
    2. Caroline Hoxby, 2000. "Peer Effects in the Classroom: Learning from Gender and Race Variation," NBER Working Papers 7867, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Cohen-Cole, Ethan & Fletcher, Jason M., 2008. "Is obesity contagious? Social networks vs. environmental factors in the obesity epidemic," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1382-1387, September.
    4. Yakusheva, Olga & Kapinos, Kandice & Weiss, Marianne, 2011. "Peer effects and the Freshman 15: Evidence from a natural experiment," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 119-132, March.
    5. Trogdon, Justin G. & Nonnemaker, James & Pais, Joanne, 2008. "Peer effects in adolescent overweight," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1388-1399, September.
    6. Muzhe Yang & Rui Huang, 2013. "Asymmetric Association between Exposure to Obesity and Weight Gain among Adolescents," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 96-118, December.
    7. Zenou, Yves & Patacchini, Eleonora & Liu, Xiaodong, 2013. "Peer Effects: Social Multiplier or Social Norms?," CEPR Discussion Papers 9366, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Renna, Francesco & Grafova, Irina B. & Thakur, Nidhi, 2008. "The effect of friends on adolescent body weight," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 377-387, December.
    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. Strombotne, Kiersten L. & Fletcher, Jason M. & Schlesinger, Mark J., 2019. "Peer effects of obesity on child body composition," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 49-57.

    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. Jebaraj Asirvatham & Michael R. Thomsen & Rodolfo M. Nayga & Heather L. Rouse, 2018. "Do peers affect childhood obesity outcomes? Peer‐effect analysis in public schools," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(1), pages 216-235, February.
    2. Nie, Peng & Sousa-Poza, Alfonso & He, Xiaobo, 2015. "Peer effects on childhood and adolescent obesity in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 47-69.
    3. Gwozdz, Wencke & Sousa-Poza, Alfonso & Reisch, Lucia A. & Bammann, Karin & Eiben, Gabriele & Kourides, Yiannis & Kovács, Éva & Lauria, Fabio & Konstabel, Kenn & Santaliestra-Pasias, Alba M. & Vyncke, , 2015. "Peer effects on obesity in a sample of European children," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 139-152.
    4. Ana Balsa & Carlos Díaz, 2018. "Social interactions in health behaviors and conditions," Documentos de Trabajo/Working Papers 1802, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales y Economia. Universidad de Montevideo..
    5. Fortin, Bernard & Yazbeck, Myra, 2015. "Peer effects, fast food consumption and adolescent weight gain," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 125-138.
    6. Ryota Nakamura & Marc Suhrcke & Daniel John Zizzo, 2017. "A triple test for behavioral economics models and public health policy," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 83(4), pages 513-533, December.
    7. Trogdon, Justin G. & Allaire, Benjamin T., 2014. "The effect of friend selection on social influences in obesity," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 153-164.
    8. Asirvatham, Jebaraj & Nayga, Rodolfo M. Jr. & Thomsen, Michael R., 2013. "Peer-Effects on Childhood Obesity," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150417, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Paul Frijters & Asad Islam & Chitwan Lalji & Debayan Pakrashi, 2019. "Roommate effects in health outcomes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(8), pages 998-1034, August.
    10. Toni Mora & Joan Gil, 2013. "Peer Effects In Adolescent Bmi: Evidence From Spain," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(5), pages 501-516, May.
    11. Asirvatham, Jebaraj & Nayga, Rodolfo M., Jr. & Thomsen, Michael R., 2012. "Peer-Effects In Obesity Among Public School Children: A Grade-Level Analysis," 2012 AAEA/EAAE Food Environment Symposium 122732, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Ana I. Balsa & Néstor Gandelman & Nicolás González, 2015. "Peer Effects in Risk Aversion," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(1), pages 27-43, January.
    13. Boucher, Vincent & Fortin, Bernard, 2015. "Some Challenges in the Empirics of the Effects of Networks," IZA Discussion Papers 8896, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Auld, M. Christopher, 2011. "Effect of large-scale social interactions on body weight," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 303-316, March.
    15. Brunello, Giorgio & Sanz-de-Galdeano, Anna & Terskaya, Anastasia, 2020. "Not only in my genes: The effects of peers’ genotype on obesity," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    16. Ryan Yeung & Phuong Nguyen-Hoang, 2016. "Endogenous peer effects: Fact or fiction?," The Journal of Educational Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 109(1), pages 37-49, January.
    17. Mir M. Ali & Aliaksandr Amialchuk & Francesco Renna, 2011. "Social Network and Weight Misperception among Adolescents," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 77(4), pages 827-842, April.
    18. Strombotne, Kiersten L. & Fletcher, Jason M. & Schlesinger, Mark J., 2019. "Peer effects of obesity on child body composition," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 49-57.
    19. Bhagyashree Katare & Timothy K. M. Beatty, 2018. "Do environmental factors drive obesity? Evidence from international graduate students," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(10), pages 1567-1593, October.
    20. Steven N. Durlauf & Yannis M. Ioannides, 2010. "Social Interactions," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 451-478, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consumer/Household Economics; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Health Economics and Policy; Institutional and Behavioral Economics;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ags:aaea14:170387. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

    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.