Does Free Trade Make You Fat?: The Role of Agricultural Policy and Food Price in Explaining Cross-Country Variation in Obesity Prevalence
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The rise in obesity prevalence throughout the developed world has reached epidemic proportions but most of the growing body of research on the causes of this trend focuses on factors within a single country and ignores the substantial cross-country variation in obesity prevalence that has persisted through the worldwide epidemic. This paper investigates the relationship between agricultural policy and obesity in OECD countries across time and geography, which has several implications. First, if agricultural policy influences obesity prevalence, cross-country variation in agricultural policy could represent a largely unexplored driver of cross-country variation in obesity rate. Second, if agricultural trade policies such as import tariffs and export subsidies influence obesity prevalence, it is possible that “free trade makes you fat” and trade liberalization could have adverse effects on population health. Finally, if agricultural policy is related obesity prevalence exclusively through its effect on food price, agricultural policy variables represent potential instruments for food price which could provide an identification strategy for the obesity “demand” function relating obesity prevalence to food price. This paper explores each of these implications and produces estimates of the effects of agricultural policy and food price on obesity prevalence and caloric supply. This paper finds that both of these variables have statistically and practically significant effects on obesity rate. Liberalization of agricultural trade could have a relatively large effect on obesity prevalence, and cross-country variation in agricultural policy and food price may explain a substantial portion of international differences in obesity prevalence, but these findings have ambiguous implications for policy since free trade and affordable food are still generally desirable policy objectives.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 2008 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Arenson, Sean M. | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Bhattacharya, Jay | |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Economics |
Subjects
| Subject | Stanford Department of Economics |
|---|---|
| Subject | agricultural support |
| Subject | import tariffs |
| Subject | subsidies |
| Subject | trade policy |
| Subject | liberalization |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Arenson, Sean M. (2008). Does Free Trade Make You Fat?: The Role of Agricultural Policy and Food Price in Explaining Cross-Country Variation in Obesity Prevalence. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/fn183pq5923
Collection
Stanford University, Department of Economics, Honors Theses
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