Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
5100786 Journal of Health Economics 2017 57 Pages PDF
Abstract
This paper develops a dynamic model to illustrate how diet and body weight change when novel food products become available to consumers. We propose a microfounded test to empirically discriminate between habit and taste formation in intertemporal preferences. Moreover, we show that 'novelty consumption' and endogenous preferences can explain the persistent correlation between economic development and obesity. By empirically studying the German reunification, we find that East Germans consumed more novel Western food and gained more weight than West Germans when a larger variety of food products became readily accessible after the fall of the Wall. The observed consumption patterns suggest that food consumption features habit formation.
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Health Sciences Medicine and Dentistry Public Health and Health Policy
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