Does Economic Insecurity Cause Weight Gain Among Canadian Labor Force Participants?

The National Population Health Survey (NPHS) suggests that for labor force participants age 25 to 64, the prevalence of self‐reported obesity in Canada has increased from 16 percent in 1998 to 23 percent in 2008. Using six cycles of NPHS data (1998–2009), I explore Canada's obesity dilemma by c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Review of income and wealth Vol. 64; no. 2; pp. 406 - 427
Main Author Watson, Barry
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2018
Subjects
Age
Body mass index
Causality
economic insecurity
Economic shock
Economic theory
Females
Health surveys
Heterogeneity
I12
I31
I32
Identification
Insecurity
Labor force
Longitudinal studies
Males
Obesity
panel data
Security
self‐medication
stress
Trust
Weight gain
Canada
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Summary:The National Population Health Survey (NPHS) suggests that for labor force participants age 25 to 64, the prevalence of self‐reported obesity in Canada has increased from 16 percent in 1998 to 23 percent in 2008. Using six cycles of NPHS data (1998–2009), I explore Canada's obesity dilemma by considering the effect of economic insecurity—measured as the probability of an individual experiencing a severe negative economic shock. As an identification strategy, a fixed effects model is employed to control for unobserved time‐invariant heterogeneity and a set of instruments based on an individual's economic environment are specified in order to isolate causality. Results suggest that for males age 25 to 64, a 1 percent increase in economic insecurity is predicted to increase their body mass index (BMI) by 0.10 points. For females age 25 to 64, the association between economic insecurity and BMI is statistically insignificant at conventional confidence levels.
Bibliography:I would like to thank the editor Conchita D'Ambrosio and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments. I am also grateful for the help provided by Ashley Calhoun from the Fredericton Research Data Centre in vetting the presented results. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the valuable insights from Lars Osberg, Shelley Phipps, and Courtney Ward. Any remaining errors are my own.
Note
ISSN:0034-6586
1475-4991
DOI:10.1111/roiw.12293