The Growth of Obesity and Technological Change: A Theoretical and Empirical Examination

This paper provides a theoretical and empirical examination of the forces that contribute to the long-run growth in weight over time. We argue that technological change has induced weight growth by making homeand marketproduction more sedentary and by lowering food prices through agricultural innovation. We consider how technological change creates unexpected relationships among income, food prices, and weight. Using individual-level data from 1976 to 1994, we find that food prices and job-related exercise have significant impacts on the choices people make about their weight. We find that about forty percent of the recent growth in weight seems to be due to reductions in the supply price of food, while sixty percent may be due to demand factors such as declining physical activity at home or on the job.