Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economicsa, and School of Policy, Planning, and Development, University of Southern California, 650 Childs Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0626, United States.
Econ Hum Biol. 2009 Dec;7(3):283-93. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2009.08.001. Epub 2009 Aug 26.
This paper presents a dynamic theory of body weight and develops its implications. We argue that technological change has induced weight growth by making home- and market-production more sedentary and by lowering food prices through agricultural innovation. In addition, we illustrate that, while exercise and food intake are complements, reductions in exercise will always raise optimal body weight, as will increases in food intake. We also characterize how body weight varies with income, both within a country, and across countries. Within a country, income may have an inverted U-shaped relationship with body weight, due to the offsetting effects of the demand for food, and the demand for an ideal body weight. This can have important implications for the body weight impacts of public transfer programs. Across countries, however, mean weight is likely to be higher in richer countries. Finally, we present descriptive empirical evidence that illustrates the inverted U-shaped relationship between body weight and income in US males, and suggests the importance of secular trends in weight gain, which are consistent with the impacts of broad-based technological changes.
本文提出了体重的动态理论，并阐述了其含义。我们认为，技术变革通过使家庭和市场生产更加久坐不动，以及通过农业创新降低食品价格，导致了体重的增长。此外，我们还说明，虽然运动和食物摄入是互补的，但运动减少将始终增加最佳体重，而食物摄入增加也会增加最佳体重。我们还描述了体重如何随收入变化，无论是在一个国家内还是在国家之间。在一个国家内，由于对食物的需求和对理想体重的需求的抵消作用，收入与体重之间可能存在倒 U 形关系。这可能对公共转移支付计划对体重的影响产生重要影响。然而，在国家之间，富裕国家的平均体重可能更高。最后，我们提出了描述性实证证据，说明了美国男性体重与收入之间的倒 U 形关系，并表明体重增加的长期趋势很重要，这与广泛的技术变革的影响一致。
