TY  - JOUR
AU  - Courtemanche,Charles J.
AU  - Heutel,Garth
AU  - McAlvanah,Patrick
TI  - Impatience, Incentives, and Obesity
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 17483
PY  - 2011
Y2  - October 2011
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17483
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17483.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Charles J. Courtemanche
University of Louisville
College of Business
Department of Economics
Louisville, KY 40292
Tel: 502-852-4854
Fax: 502-852-7672
E-Mail: cjcour02@louisville.edu

Garth Heutel
Bryan 466, Department of Economics
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
P. O. Box 26170
Greensboro, NC 27402
Tel: 336/334-4872
Fax: 336/334-5580
E-Mail: gaheutel@uncg.edu

Patrick McAlvanah
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Mail Drop NJ 4136
Washington, DC 20580
E-Mail: pmcalvanah@ftc.gov
AB  - This paper explores the relationship between time preferences, economic incentives, and body mass index (BMI).  Using data from the 2006 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we first show that greater impatience increases BMI and the likelihood of obesity even after controlling for demographic, human capital, occupational, and financial characteristics as well as risk preference.  Next, we provide evidence of an interaction effect between time preference and food prices, with cheaper food leading to the largest weight gains among those exhibiting the most impatience.  The interaction of changing economic incentives with heterogeneous discounting may help explain why increases in BMI have been concentrated amongst the right tail of the distribution, where the health consequences are especially severe.  Lastly, we model time-inconsistent preferences by computing individuals' quasi-hyperbolic discounting parameters (beta and delta). Both long-run patience (delta) and present-bias (beta) predict BMI, suggesting obesity is partly attributable to rational intertemporal tradeoffs but also partly to time inconsistency.
ER  -