IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/umciwp/7261.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Economic Consequences of the Obese

Author

Listed:
  • Runge, C. Ford

Abstract

The private and social costs of obesity have many causes, but their consequences can be grimly predicted with rough accuracy. Among the most devastating is the increased incidence of diabetes, of which 60 percent can be directly attributed to weight gain. There are now about a billion people worldwide who are overweight or obese, compared to 850 million who are chronically underweight. It is estimated that the number of people worldwide with diabetes will increase from 175 million in 2000 to 353 million in 2030, with India and China together accounting for 24 percent of the 2050 total. Obesity and its economic costs are borne on three levels. At an individual level, obesity imposes costs by limiting personal opportunity in many ways, some of which can be quantified and some of which cannot. In the workplace (assuming the obese are employed, which they may not be, due in part to their condition), costs are borne by employers due to lost productivity, absences, underperformance, and higher insurance premia which in the aggregate are quite large. Finally, obesity affects expenditures by local, state and national governments, where programs compensate for or cover some of the private and workforce costs of illness and unemployment.

Suggested Citation

  • Runge, C. Ford, 2007. "The Economic Consequences of the Obese," Working Papers 7261, University of Minnesota, Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:umciwp:7261
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.7261
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/7261/files/wp07-01.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.7261?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. Becker, Gary S & Grossman, Michael & Murphy, Kevin M, 1991. "Rational Addiction and the Effect of Price on Consumption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 237-241, May.
    2. Iannaccone, Laurence R., 1986. "Addiction and satiation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 95-99.
    3. 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.
    4. Becker, Gary S & Murphy, Kevin M, 1988. "A Theory of Rational Addiction," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(4), pages 675-700, August.
    5. Runge, C. Ford & Senauer, Benjamin & Pardey, Philip G. & Rosegrant, Mark W. (ed.), 2003. "Ending hunger in our lifetime: Food security and globalization," IFPRI books, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), number 0-8018-7725-3.
    6. John Cawley, 2004. "The Impact of Obesity on Wages," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(2).
    7. Drewnowski, A. & Darmon, N. & Briend, A., 2004. "Replacing fats and sweets with vegetables and fruits - A question of cost," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 94(9), pages 1555-1559.
    8. Adam Drewnowski & Nicole Darmon, 2005. "Food choices and diet costs: an economic analysis," Post-Print hal-03759740, HAL.
    9. Unknown, 1986. "Letters," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 1(4), pages 1-9.
    10. Loureiro, Maria L., 2004. "Obesity: Economic Dimensions of a "Supersize" Problem," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 19(3), pages 1-6.
    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. Yoon, Jangho & Brown, Timothy T., 2011. "Does the promotion of community social capital reduce obesity risk?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 296-305, May.
    2. Cristiana Tudor, 2022. "The Nexus between Pollution and Obesity and the Magnifying Role of Media Consumption: International Evidence from GMM Systems Estimates," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-18, August.
    3. Levasseur, Pierre, 2019. "Can social programs break the vicious cycle between poverty and obesity? Evidence from urban Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 143-156.
    4. Cavaliere, Alessia & Banterle, Alessandro, 2008. "Economic factors affecting obesity: an application in Italy," 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium 44324, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. Pierre LEVASSEUR, 2016. "The effects of bodyweight on wages in urban Mexico," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2016-18, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).

    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. Champarnaud, Luc & Michel, Philippe, 2000. "Biens culturels, transmission de culture et croissance," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 76(4), pages 501-520, décembre.
    2. Wang Ruqu, 2007. "The Optimal Consumption and the Quitting of Harmful Addictive Goods," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-38, February.
    3. Brice Corgnet & Simon Gaechter & Roberto Hernan Gonzalez, 2020. "Working Too Much for Too Little: Stochastic Rewards Cause Work Addiction," Discussion Papers 2020-03, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    4. Becchetti, Leonardo & Solferino, Nazaria & Tessitore, Maria Elisabetta, 2014. "A dynamic model of Gambling addiction with social costs: theory and policy solutions," AICCON Working Papers 133-2014, Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit.
    5. Jonathan Guryan & Melissa S. Kearney, 2010. "Is Lottery Gambling Addictive?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 90-110, August.
    6. Steven F. Koch, 2005. "Love and Addiction: The Importance of Commitment," Working Papers 200516, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    7. Dockner, Engelbert J & Feichtinger, Gustav, 1993. "Cyclical Consumption Patterns and Rational Addiction," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 256-263, March.
    8. Xiaoou Liu & Rigoberto Lopez, 2012. "Evidence of rational addiction to carbonated soft drinks?," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 4(3), pages 300-317, August.
    9. Drugeon, Jean-Pierre & Wigniolle, Bertrand, 2007. "On time preference, rational addiction and utility satiation," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(3-4), pages 249-286, April.
    10. Mauro Bambi & Daria Ghilli & Fausto Gozzi & Marta Leocata, 2021. "Habits and demand changes after COVID-19," Papers 2107.00909, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2022.
    11. Smith, V. Kerry, 1997. "Time and the Valuation of Environmental Resources," RFF Working Paper Series dp-98-07, Resources for the Future.
    12. McGeary, Kerry Anne, 2013. "The impact of state-level nutrition-education program funding on BMI: Evidence from the behavioral risk factor surveillance system," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 67-78.
    13. Jim Malley & Hassan Molana, "undated". "The Permanent Income Hypothesis Revisited: Reconciling Evidence from Aggregate Data with the Representative Consumer Behaviour," ICMM Discussion Papers 48, Department of Economics University of Strathclyde.
    14. Zaifu Yang & Rong Zhang, 2014. "Rational Addictive Behavior under Uncertainty," Discussion Papers 14/12, Department of Economics, University of York.
    15. Collet, Roger & de Lapparent, Matthieu & Hivert, Laurent, 2015. "Are French households car-use addicts? A microeconomic perspective," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 86-94.
    16. Engelbert Dockner & Gustav Feichtinger, 1991. "On the optimality of limit cycles in dynamic economic systems," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 31-50, February.
    17. Kubin, Ingrid & Prinz, Aloys, 2002. "Labour supply with habit formation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 75-79, March.
    18. Sophie Massin, 2011. "La notion d'addiction en économie : La théorie du choix rationnel à l'épreuve," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 121(5), pages 713-750.
    19. Zhang Wei, 2012. "Endogenous Preferences and Dynamic Contract Design," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-34, May.
    20. Jonathan Guryan & Melissa S. Kearney, 2005. "Lucky Stores, Gambling, and Addiction: Empirical Evidence from State Lottery Sales," NBER Working Papers 11287, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health Economics and 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:ags:umciwp:7261. 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/ciumnus.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.