Lose some, save some: Obesity, automobile demand, and gasoline consumption |
| |
Authors: | Shanjun Li Yanyan Liu Junjie Zhang |
| |
Affiliation: | a Resources for the Future, 1616 P Street, N.W. Washington DC 20036, USA b International Food Policy Research Institute, 2033 K Street, N.W. Washington DC 20006, USA c School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California - San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, 0519 La Jolla, CA 92093, USA |
| |
Abstract: | This paper examines the unexplored link between the prevalence of overweight and obesity and vehicle demand in the United States. Exploring annual sales data of new passenger vehicles at the model level in 48 U.S. counties from 1999 to 2005, we find that new vehicles demanded by consumers are less fuel-efficient on average as a larger share of people become overweight or obese. The OLS results show that a 10 percentage point increase in obesity and overweight reduces the average MPG of new vehicles demanded by 1.4 percent, an effect requiring a 12 cent increase in gasoline prices to counteract. The 2SLS results after controlling for possible endogeneity in overweight and obesity prevalence put those two numbers at 5 percent and 54 cent, respectively. These findings, robust to a variety of specifications, suggest that policies to reduce overweight and obesity can have additional benefits for energy security and the environment. |
| |
Keywords: | Automobile demand Gasoline Greenhouse gas emissions Obesity |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录! |
|