Djeunankan Ronald, Tadadjeu Sosson, Njangang Henri, Mazhar Ummad
Dschang School of Economics and Management (DSEM), University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon.
Faculty of Economics and Management (LAREFA), University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon.
Eur J Health Econ. 2025 Mar;26(2):243-265. doi: 10.1007/s10198-024-01699-7. Epub 2024 Jun 11.
Obesity has become a global health crisis, affecting people of all ages, regions, and socio-economic backgrounds. While individual behaviour and genetic factors contribute to obesity, the role of economic complexity in the evolution of obesity rates has not yet been empirically studied. Using a large panel of 110 countries over the period 1976-2015, this article estimates the linear and non-linear links between obesity and economic complexity. According to baseline results, an improvement in economic complexity will lead to an increase in obesity up to a certain threshold. Beyond this turning point, any further increase in economic complexity will significantly contribute to obesity reduction. The issue of simultaneity is tackled using the two-stage instrumental variable method. Our findings support the Obesity Kuznets Curve (OKC) pattern, which suggests that economic progress and obesity have an inverted U-shaped relationship. Our results suggest that greater embeddedness of knowledge in the products produced and exported by a country increases the likelihood of obesity in society, at least up to a threshold. From these results, some important policy implications are discussed.
肥胖已成为一场全球健康危机,影响着所有年龄段、地区及社会经济背景的人群。虽然个人行为和遗传因素会导致肥胖,但经济复杂性在肥胖率演变过程中的作用尚未得到实证研究。本文利用1976年至2015年期间110个国家的大型面板数据,估计了肥胖与经济复杂性之间的线性和非线性联系。根据基线结果,经济复杂性的改善将导致肥胖增加,直至达到某个阈值。超过这个转折点后,经济复杂性的任何进一步提高将显著有助于降低肥胖率。我们使用两阶段工具变量法解决了同时性问题。我们的研究结果支持肥胖库兹涅茨曲线(OKC)模式,该模式表明经济进步与肥胖呈倒U形关系。我们的结果表明,一个国家生产和出口的产品中知识的更高嵌入性会增加社会肥胖的可能性,至少在达到某个阈值之前是这样。基于这些结果,我们讨论了一些重要的政策含义。