Why Have Americans Become More Obese

By David M. Cutler, Edward L. Glaeser, Jesse M. Shapiro. 2003

1,576 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Americans have become considerably more obese over the past 25 years. This increase is primarily the result of consuming more calories. The increase in food consumption is itself the result of technological innovations which made it possible for food to be mass prepared far from the point of consumption, and consumed with lower time costs of preparation and cleaning. Price changes are normally beneficial, but may not be if people have self-control problems. This applies to some, but not most, of the population.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, General Decision Sciences

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/eb965431fc51e2b7e0e1a507ea8426486571b02d

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Citations in the corpus

Why the Poor Get Fat: Weight Gain and Economic Insecurity (2009, background): “Weight and income may be negatively correlated due to unobserved personal characteristics such as self-discipline or impulsivity (Cutler et al. 2003).”
Putting nudges in perspective (2017, background): “For example, explanations offered for the recent explosion in obesity include changes in the absolute and relative prices of fresh and packaged foods, decreased time available for food preparation, increasing snacking, and increased portion sizes (Cutler et al., 2003).”
Poverty, food insecurity, and nutritional outcomes in children and adults. (2004, background): “Cutler, Glaeser, and Shapiro (2003) show that the increases in obesity have come about as Americans increased their caloric intake and reduced their exercise levels.”
The Impact of Food Away From Home on Adult Diet Quality (2012, background): “Educating consumers about healthful FAFH choices could have signifi cant payoff, especially if self-control is exacerbated when eating away from home (Cutler et al., 2003; Mancino and Kinsey, 2008).”
Socioeconomic Disparities in Health Behaviors (2010, background): “Technological advances in food processing and preparation lower the price and time costs of eating but may increase obesity, although those changes likely affect all SES groups equally (Cutler et al. 2003).”
The Effects of Food Stamps on Obesity (2011, background): “…Levine (2003) find evidence that maternal employment increases childhood obesity because working mothers have less time to prepare healthy meals; Cutler, Glaeser, and Shapiro (2003) assert that technological advances in food preparation making food readily available have caused hyperbolic…”
Regression with Imputed Covariates: A Generalized Missing Indicator Approach (2011, background): “As such, it has received lots of attention in the recent literature on the obesity epidemic and its economic and public health consequences (Cutler, Glaeser and Shapiro [3], Philipson and Posner [18]).”
Depression as a disease of modernity: explanations for increasing prevalence (2012, background): “The reduction in energy expenditure in the US adult population during the past century is calculated to have mainly occurred between 1910 and 1970, and had leveled off by about 1980 (Cutler et al., 2003).”
Environmental factors that increase the food intake and consumption volume of unknowing consumers. (2004, background): “Consumption is a context where understanding fundamental behavior has immediate implications for consumer welfare (21).”