Essays in the economics of obesity.
Item
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Title
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Essays in the economics of obesity.
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Identifier
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AAI3127915
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identifier
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3127915
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Creator
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Rashad, Inas.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Michael Grossman
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Date
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2004
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Economics, General | Health Sciences, Public Health | Health Sciences, Nutrition | Business Administration, Marketing
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Abstract
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Obesity is currently an epidemic, rapidly outpacing smoking as the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) are the data sets that the Centers for Disease Control use in order to track changes in obesity over time. In The Super Size of America: An Economic Estimation of Body Mass Index and Obesity in Adults, I use individual-level NHANES data in order to assess the effect of various state-level variables on the increase in the obesity trend in adults. In Structural Estimation of Caloric Intake, Exercise, Smoking and Obesity, I use NHANES to estimate simultaneous equations models by taking advantage of information on caloric intake, physical activity, and smoking by individuals, and the mechanism through which economic factors influence these choice variables. In Fast Food Advertising on Television and Its Influence on Childhood Obesity, I estimate the effect of fast food advertising on television on obesity in children and adolescents using panel data sets, which allows for the estimation of individual fixed effects models to control for possible unobserved heterogeneity. Children of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and adolescents from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth are used in this analysis. I discuss various economic forces that have contributed to the rapid increase in the obesity epidemic in the United States, and also address social and labor market consequences to this increase in obesity.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
