The Economics of Food Consumption, Caloric Intake, and Obesity

人们经常提议征收“脂肪税”来对抗肥胖。事实上，经济学表明，特定食品价格的上涨会导致其需求的减少。然而，对总卡路里消耗和肥胖的影响不太明显；这将取决于任何替代食品的可用性和卡路里密度。同样，家庭收入的增加并不一定会增加消费。对某些食物的需求可能会上升(例如奢侈品)，而对其他食物的需求可能会下降(土豆就是典型的例子)。此外，价格和收入变化对不同家庭成员的影响可能不同：例如，一些研究发现，收入冲击会对成年人/老年人的营养结果产生负面影响，但对儿童没有负面影响，这表明成年人放弃食物是为了确保他们的孩子有足够的营养。然而，由于缺乏数据，关于个人对价格和收入变化的反应的研究相对较少。这项研究旨在纠正这一点。它使用一个独特的数据集，旨在量化个人对价格和收入变化的反应，检查短期结果(卡路里消耗)和长期结果(肥胖)，并估计对成人、儿童和老年人是否有不同的影响。

‘Fat taxes‘ are often proposed to combat obesity. Indeed, economics suggests that an increase in the price of a specific food item leads to a decrease in its demand. However, the effect on total calorie consumption and so obesity is less clear; this will depend on the availability and caloric densities of any substitute foods. Similarly, an increase in household income will not necessarily increase consumption. The demand for certain foods may rise (e.g. luxury foods) whilst the demand for others may fall (potatoes are the classic example). In addition, the effect of price and income changes may be different for different household members: for example, some studies find income shocks to negatively affect nutritional outcomes for adults/elderly, but not for children, suggesting that adults give up food to ensure adequate nutrition for their children.Due to a lack of data however, there has been relatively little research into individuals‘ responses to price and income changes. This study aims to redress this. Using a unique dataset, it aims to quantify how individuals respond to price and income changes, examining short (calorie consumption) and longer term outcomes (obesity) and estimating whether there are differential effects for adults, children and the elderly.