IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/iaae06/25518.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economic Growth, Lifestyle Changes, and the Coexistence of Under and Overweight in China: A Semiparametric Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Shimokawa, Satoru
  • Pinstrup-Andersen, Per

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between changes in socioeconomic factors and the emerging coexistence of under and overweight among adults in China during 1991-2000. Our key questions are: (1) whether any socioeconomic factor explains both increasing overweight (Body Mass Index (BMI)less than or equal to 25 kg/m2) and remaining underweight (BMI greater than or equal to 18.5 kg/m2), (2) whether China's continuing economic growth leads to further increase in the prevalence of overweight, and (3) whether China's economic growth alone can lead to commensurate decrease in its remaining underweight. Based on the theoretical model in Lakdawalla and Philipson (2002), we focus on the effects of economic growth on weight through changes in income, job-related activity and food prices. We adopt a semiparametric technique and decompose changes in the BMI distribution into the effects of changes in selected socioeconomic factors. We find that changes in the pattern of job-related activity partly explain both increasing overweight and remaining underweight. Overall income growth contributes to decreasing both under and overweight. Decreasing food prices are one of main factors shifting Chinese population from underweight toward overweight. The effects of economic growth examined in this paper well-explain increasing overweight, and thus continuing economic growth is likely to lead to further increase in overweight rates. Our results also indicate that there exist unobserved factors that significantly counteract the downward effects of economic growth on underweight rates, and thus economic growth alone is unlikely to lead to commensurate decrease in remaining underweight. To reduce remaining underweight, more direct interventions (e.g., micronutrient supplementation) may be needed.

Suggested Citation

  • Shimokawa, Satoru & Pinstrup-Andersen, Per, 2006. "Economic Growth, Lifestyle Changes, and the Coexistence of Under and Overweight in China: A Semiparametric Approach," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25518, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:iaae06:25518
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.25518
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/25518/files/cp060265.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.25518?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. DiNardo, John & Fortin, Nicole M & Lemieux, Thomas, 1996. "Labor Market Institutions and the Distribution of Wages, 1973-1992: A Semiparametric Approach," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(5), pages 1001-1044, September.
    2. 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.
    3. Fang, Cheng & Beghin, John C., 2002. "Urban Demand for Edible Oils and Fats in China: Evidence from Household Survey Data," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 732-753, December.
    4. Jones, Derek C. & Li, Cheng & Owen, Ann L., 2003. "Growth and regional inequality in China during the reform era," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 186-200.
    5. Lawrence Haddad & Harold Alderman & Simon Appleton & Lina Song & Yisehac Yohannes, 2003. "Reducing Child Malnutrition: How Far Does Income Growth Take Us?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 17(1), pages 107-131, June.
    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. Maciejczak, Mariusz, 2015. "Will the institution of coexistence be re-defined by TTIP?," GMCC-15: Seventh GMCC, November 17-20, 2015, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 211478, International Conference on Coexistence between Genetically Modified (GM) and non-GM based Agricultural Supply Chains (GMCC).

    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. Shimokawa, Satoru & Pinstrup-Andersen, Per, 2006. "Economic Growth, Lifestyle Changes, and the Coexistence of Under and Overweight in China: A Semiparametric Approach," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21334, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    2. Zhou, Song & Awokuse, Titus O., "undated". "Urbanization, Nutrition Transition, and Obesity: Evidence from China," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170458, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Haddad, Lawrence James, 2003. "What can food policy do to redirect the diet transition?," FCND discussion papers 165, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Lu, Yang & Goldman, Dana, 2010. "The Effects of Relative Food Prices on Obesity – Evidence from China: 1991-2006," Working Papers 58249, American Association of Wine Economists.
    5. Thomas Y. Mathä & Alessandro Porpiglia & Michael Ziegelmeyer, 2014. "Wealth differences across borders and the effect of real estate price dynamics: Evidence from two household surveys," BCL working papers 90, Central Bank of Luxembourg.
    6. Aiyar, Anaka & Cummins, Joseph R., 2021. "An age profile perspective on two puzzles in global child health: The Indian Enigma & economic growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    7. Diane Coffey & Ashwini Deshpande & Jeffrey Hammer & Dean Spears, 2019. "Local Social Inequality, Economic Inequality, and Disparities in Child Height in India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1427-1452, August.
    8. Joanna Tyrowicz & Lucas van der Velde, 2017. "When the opportunity knocks: large structural shocks and gender wage gaps," GRAPE Working Papers 2, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    9. Matias Busso & Patrick Kline, 2008. "Do Local Economic Development Programs Work? Evidence from the Federal Empowerment Zone Program," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1639, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    10. Zsófia L. Bárány, 2016. "The Minimum Wage and Inequality: The Effects of Education and Technology," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 237-274.
    11. Angus Deaton & Jean Dreze, 2008. "Nutrition in India: Facts and Interpretations," Working Papers 1071, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
    12. Caliendo, Marco & Wittbrodt, Linda, 2022. "Did the minimum wage reduce the gender wage gap in Germany?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    13. Corak, Miles & Lauzon, Darren, 2009. "Differences in the distribution of high school achievement: The role of class-size and time-in-term," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 189-198, April.
    14. Motoyama, Yasuyuki & Cao, Cong & Appelbaum, Richard, 2014. "Observing regional divergence of Chinese nanotechnology centers," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 11-21.
    15. Richard V. Burkhauser & Shuaizhang Feng & Stephen P. Jenkins, 2009. "Using The P90/P10 Index To Measure U.S. Inequality Trends With Current Population Survey Data: A View From Inside The Census Bureau Vaults," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 55(1), pages 166-185, March.
    16. Xiaohong Chen & Andres Santos, 2018. "Overidentification in Regular Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 86(5), pages 1771-1817, September.
    17. Ichimura, Hidehiko & Todd, Petra E., 2007. "Implementing Nonparametric and Semiparametric Estimators," Handbook of Econometrics, in: J.J. Heckman & E.E. Leamer (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 6, chapter 74, Elsevier.
    18. Maximilian D. Schmeiser, 2012. "The impact of long‐term participation in the supplemental nutrition assistance program on child obesity," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(4), pages 386-404, April.
    19. Brunie, Aurélie & Fumagalli, Laura & Martin, Thomas & Field, Samuel & Rutherford, Diana, 2014. "Can village savings and loan groups be a potential tool in the malnutrition fight? Mixed method findings from Mozambique," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(P2), pages 113-120.
    20. Bhorat, Haroon & Goga, Sumayya & Stanwix, Benjamin, 2014. "Skills-biased labour demand and the pursuit of inclusive growth in South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 130, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    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:iaae06:25518. 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/iaaeeea.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.