RAND Corporation, 1776 Main St, Santa Monica, CA 90401, United States.
J Health Econ. 2021 Dec;80:102506. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2021.102506. Epub 2021 Jul 19.
I provide new evidence on how price changes of nutritionally similar foods, such as those rich in sugar or fats, change obesity and diet-related diseases in the context of Mexico between 1996-2010. I merge a bar-code level price dataset with product-specific nutritional composition to two datasets with health outcomes: state-level administrative and nationally representative individual-level panel data. Exploiting within-city variation in prices using fixed effects models, I show that decreased prices of sugar-rich foods increase obesity, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension prevalence; yet the prices of foods rich in other nutrients do not. Health responses to price changes are the largest for those abdominally obese or at the highest risk for chronic disease. The association between prices of sugary foods and chronic disease is meaningful: I estimate that in Mexico, price reductions of sugary foods explain roughly 15 percent of the rise in obesity and diabetes during the 15-year study period.
我提供了新的证据，说明在 1996-2010 年墨西哥，营养成分相似的食品（如富含糖或脂肪的食品）价格变化如何导致肥胖和与饮食相关的疾病。我将条码级别的价格数据集与特定产品的营养成分数据合并到两个健康结果数据集：州级行政和全国代表性的个人层面面板数据。利用固定效应模型利用城市内的价格差异，我表明富含糖的食品价格降低会增加肥胖、2 型糖尿病和高血压的患病率；而其他营养丰富的食品价格变化则不会。对价格变化最敏感的是腹部肥胖或患慢性病风险最高的人群。含糖食品价格与慢性病之间的关联是有意义的：我估计，在墨西哥，含糖食品价格降低大约解释了在 15 年研究期间肥胖和糖尿病发病率上升的 15%。
