TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cawley, John
AU  - Moran, John R
AU  - Simon, Kosali I
TI  - The Impact of Income on the Weight of Elderly Americans
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14104
PY  - 2008
Y2  - June 2008
DO  - 10.3386/w14104
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14104
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14104.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
John Cawley
2312 MVR Hall
Department of Policy Analysis and Management
and Department of Economics
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853
Tel: 607-255-0952
E-Mail: JHC38@cornell.edu

John R. Moran
604 Ford Building
Department of Health Policy and Administration
Pennsylvania State University
University Park PA 16802
Tel: 315/443-9058
Fax: 315/443-1081
E-Mail: jrm12@psu.edu

Kosali I. Simon
O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Indiana University
Rm 357
1315 East Tenth Street
Bloomington, IN 47405-1701
Tel: (812) 856-3850
E-Mail: simonkos@indiana.edu
AB  - This paper tests whether income affects the body weight and clinical weight classification of elderly Americans using a natural experiment that led otherwise identical retirees to receive significantly different Social Security payments based on their year of birth.  We exploit this natural experiment by estimating models of instrumental variables using data from the National Health Interview Surveys.  The model estimates rule out even moderate effects of income on weight and on the probability of being underweight or obese, especially for men.
ER  -