Time discounting and the body mass index - Evidence from the Netherlands
Time discounting and the body mass index - Evidence from the Netherlands
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DOI：
10.1016/j.ehb.2005.10.001
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发表时间：
2006-01-01
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Golsteyn, Bart H. H.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Borghans, Lex;Golsteyn, Bart H. H.
在许多西方国家，人们的相对体重-以体重指数（BMI）衡量-近年来大幅增加，导致超重和相关健康问题的发生率不断增加。与许多形式的风险行为一样，超重与个人贴现率有关是合理的。信用卡债务的增加，赌博的增加和享乐主义生活方式的发展，表明平均贴现率随着时间的推移而增加。时间折扣的增加可能是BMI上升的一个因素。应用一个大的指标，从荷兰的调查，个人贴现率，本文分析了时间贴现的变化是否可以解释在一个给定的时间点的个人之间的体重差异，以及平均个人贴现率的变化是否可以解释显着增加的BMI经历了近年来在荷兰。我们发现一些证据表明时间折扣和人与人之间的BMI差异之间存在联系，但这种关系强烈依赖于折扣率代理的选择。给我们的假设最好的机会，我们分析的时间折扣代理的发展是最强烈的BMI相关。我们没有发现这些代理随时间变化的证据。因此，我们的主要结论是，超重可能与人们对未来健康益处的贴现方式有关，但BMI的增加更有可能由其他参数的变化来解释，这些参数决定了关于当前和未来健康和满意度权衡的跨期决策。(c)2005 Elsevier B. V.保留所有权利。
In many Western countries, the relative weight of people - measured by the body mass index (BMI) - has increased substantially in recent years, leading to an increasing incidence of overweight and related health problems. As with many forms of risky behavior, it is plausible that overweight is related to the individual discount rate. Increases in credit card debts, the rise in gambling and the development of a more hedonic life style, suggest that the average discount rate has increased over time. An increase in time discounting may be a contributing factor in the rise in BMI. Applying a large set of indicators for the individual discount rate from a Dutch survey, this paper analyzes whether changes in time discounting can account for differences in body mass between individuals at a given point in time and whether changes in the average individual discount rate can explain the remarkable increase in BMI experienced in recent years in the Netherlands. We find some evidence for a link between time discounting and differences in BMI between people, but this relationship depends strongly on the choice of the proxy for the discount rate. Giving our hypothesis the best chance, we analyze the development of the time discounting proxies that are most strongly related to BMI. We find no evidence for a change of these proxies over time. Our main conclusion therefore is that overweight might be related to the way people discount future health benefits, but the increase in BMI is more likely explained by shifts in other parameters that determine the intertemporal decisions regarding the trade-off of current and future health and satisfaction. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.