Endogenous Food Quality and Bodyweight Trend

Abstract

This paper follows previous economic studies on bodyweight by looking at bodyweight as individuals’ choices in response to changes in income and food prices. However, it goes one step further to add another relevant choice under individual control: food quality. It shows that the upward trend of bodyweight caused by economic growth and technological innovations may well be self-limiting in the sense that the bodyweight growth in the future is likely to be slower or reversed. In particular, it finds that much of further income growth will be used for improving food quality rather than increasing caloric intake. Moreover, further technological innovations that focus on lowering the price of high-quality (healthy) food relative to that of low-quality food would encourage substituting food quality for food quantity (calories).

Citation

Liu, L., Rettenmaier, A.J. and Saving, T.R. (2006), "Endogenous Food Quality and Bodyweight Trend", Bolin, K. and Cawley, J. (Ed.) The Economics of Obesity (Advances in Health Economics and Health Services Research, Vol. 17), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 3-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0731-2199(06)17001-6