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Vertical Transmission of Overweight: Evidence From English Adoptees

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  • Joan Costa Font
  • Mireia Jofre-Bonet
  • Julian Le Grand

Abstract

We examine the vertical transmission of overweight drawing upon a sample of English children, both adopted and non-adopted, and their families. Our results suggest strong evidence of an intergenerational association of overweight between adopted children and their adoptive parents, indicating transmission through cultural factors. We find that, when both adoptive parents are overweight, the likelihood of an adopted child being overweight is between 10 and 20 percentual points higher than when they are not. We also find that the cultural transmission of overweight is not aggravated by having a full-time working mother, so do not confirm the existence of a female labour market participation penalty on child overweight among adoptees. Overall, our findings are robust to a battery of robustness checks and specifications.

Suggested Citation

  • Joan Costa Font & Mireia Jofre-Bonet & Julian Le Grand, 2015. "Vertical Transmission of Overweight: Evidence From English Adoptees," CEP Discussion Papers dp1324, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1324
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    1. Vertical transmission of overweight: evidence from English adoptees
      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2015-02-20 22:54:58

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    1. Dioikitopoulos, Evangelos V. & Minos, Dimitrios & Vandoros, Sotiris, 2020. "The (Agri-)Cultural origins of obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Vertical transmission; cultural transmission; overweight; children; natural parents; Body Mass Index; sample selection;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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