University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
J Health Econ. 2010 May;29(3):347-52. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2010.03.005. Epub 2010 Mar 16.
Despite the well-known benefits of exercise, the time required for exercise is widely understood as a major reason for low levels of exercise in the US. Intensity of exercise can change the time required for a given amount of total exercise but has never been studied from an economic perspective. We present a simple model of exercise behavior which suggests that the intensity of exercise should increase relative to time spent exercising as wages increase, holding other determinants of exercise constant. Our empirical results identify an association between income and exercise intensity that is consistent with the hypothesis that people respond to increased time costs of exercise by increasing intensity. More generally, our results suggest that time costs may be an important determinant of exercise patterns and that factors that can influence the time costs of exercise, such as intensity, may be important concerns in designing interventions to promote exercise.
尽管运动有很多好处，但人们普遍认为运动所需的时间是导致美国运动水平低的一个主要原因。运动强度可以改变完成一定量总运动量所需的时间，但从未从经济学角度进行过研究。我们提出了一个简单的运动行为模型，该模型表明，在保持其他运动决定因素不变的情况下，随着工资的增加，运动强度应相对于运动时间的增加而增加。我们的实证结果确定了收入与运动强度之间的关联，这与人们通过增加运动强度来应对运动时间成本增加的假设是一致的。更一般地说，我们的结果表明，时间成本可能是运动模式的一个重要决定因素，而能够影响运动时间成本的因素，如运动强度，可能是促进运动干预措施的重要关注点。
