The medical care costs of obesity: An instrumental variables approach
The medical care costs of obesity: An instrumental variables approach
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jhealeco.2011.10.003
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发表时间：
2012-01-01
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Meyerhoefer, Chad
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cawley, John;Meyerhoefer, Chad
本文首次使用工具变量法（IV）来估计肥胖对医疗费用的影响，以解决体重的内生性问题，并减少体重报告误差带来的偏倚。模型是使用2000-2005年医疗支出专门小组调查的限制使用数据估算的。IV模型利用体重的遗传变异作为自然实验，得出的肥胖对医疗费用影响的估计值远高于之前文献中报告的估计值。例如，肥胖与每年656美元的医疗保健费用有关，但IV结果表明，肥胖使每年的医疗费用增加了2741美元（以2005年美元计算）。这些结果意味着，以前的文献低估了肥胖的医疗成本，导致低估了政府干预，以减少肥胖相关的外部性的经济理由。(C)2011爱思唯尔有限公司版权所有。
This paper is the first to use the method of instrumental variables (IV) to estimate the impact of obesity on medical costs in order to address the endogeneity of weight and to reduce the bias from reporting error in weight. Models are estimated using restricted-use data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for 2000-2005. The IV model, which exploits genetic variation in weight as a natural experiment, yields estimates of the impact of obesity on medical costs that are considerably higher than the estimates reported in the previous literature. For example, obesity is associated with $656 higher annual medical care costs, but the IV results indicate that obesity raises annual medical costs by $2741 (in 2005 dollars). These results imply that the previous literature has underestimated the medical costs of obesity, resulting in underestimates of the economic rationale for government intervention to reduce obesity-related externalities. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.