Does college selectivity reduce obesity? A partial identification approach.

We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to investigate whether the quality of tertiary education -measured by college selectivity-causally affects obesity prevalence in the medium run (by age 24-34) and in the longer run (about 10 years later). We use partial identification methods, which allow us, while relying on weak assumptions, to overcome the potential endogeneity of college selectivity as well as the potential violation of the stable unit treatment value assumption due to students interacting with each other, and to obtain informative identification regions for the average treatment effect of college selectivity on obesity. We find that attending a more selective college causally reduces obesity, both in the medium and in the longer run. We provide evidence that the mechanisms through which the impact of college selectivity on obesity operates include an increase in income, a reduction in physical inactivity and in the consumption of fast food and sweetened drinks.

Do investments in human and physical capital respond differently to financing constraints?

Using a representative sample of European firms, we study whether financing constraints affect employers' investments in employee training and physical capital differently. We measure financing constraints with an index that combines survey and balance sheet data. We instrument this index with the non-performing loans ratio of the bank that provided the last loan to the firms or with the average ratio of banks in the local area. We find that financing constraints have no effect on investment in training, but substantially reduce investment in physical capital.

Not only in my genes: The effects of peers' genotype on obesity.

We use data from three waves of Add Health to study the short- and long-run effects of high school peers' genetic predisposition to high BMI-measured by grade-mates' average BMI polygenic scores-on adolescent and adult obesity in the U.S. We find that, in the short-run, a one standard deviation increase in peers' average BMI polygenic scores raises the probability of obesity for females by 2.8% points, about half the size of the effect induced by a one standard deviation increase in one's own polygenic score. No significant effect is found for males. In the long-run, however, the social-genetic effect fades away, while the effect of one's own genetic risk for BMI increases substantially. We suggest that mechanisms explaining the short-run effect for females include changes in nutrition habits and a distorted perception of body size.

Does postponing minimum retirement age improve healthy behaviors before retirement? Evidence from middle-aged Italian workers.

By increasing the residual working horizon of employed individuals, pension reforms that rise minimum retirement age can affect individual investment in health-promoting behaviors before retirement. Using the expected increase in minimum retirement age induced by a 2004 Italian pension reform and a difference-in-differences research design, we show that middle-aged Italian males affected by the reform reacted to the longer working horizon by increasing regular exercise, with positive consequences for obesity and self-reported satisfaction with health.

Pappa Ante Portas: The effect of the husband's retirement on the wife's mental health in Japan.

The "Retired Husband Syndrome", that affects the mental health of wives of retired men around the world, has been anecdotally documented but never formally investigated. Using Japanese micro-data and the exogenous variation across cohorts in the maximum age of guaranteed employment induced by a 2006 Japanese reform, we estimate that the husband's earlier retirement significantly increases the probability that the wife reports symptoms related to the syndrome. We also find that retirement has a negative effect both on the household's economic situation and on the husband's own mental health, and that the higher economic distress contributes to reducing the wife's mental health.

Later-borns Don't Give Up: The Temporary Effects of Birth Order on European Earnings.

The existing empirical evidence on the effects of birth order on wages does not distinguish between temporary and permanent effects. Using data from 11 European countries for males born between 1935 and 1956, we show that firstborns enjoy on average a 13.7% premium in their entry wage compared with later-borns. This advantage, however, is short-lived and disappears 10 years after labor market entry. Although firstborns start with a better job, partially because of their higher education, later-borns quickly catch up by switching earlier and more frequently to better-paying jobs. We argue that a key factor driving our findings is that later-borns have lower risk aversion than firstborns.

The Causal Effect of Education on Health: What is the Role of Health Behaviors?

We investigate the causal effect of education on health and the part of it that is attributable to health behaviors by distinguishing between short-run and long-run mediating effects: whereas, in the former, only behaviors in the immediate past are taken into account, in the latter, we consider the entire history of behaviors. We use two identification strategies: instrumental variables based on compulsory schooling reforms and a combined aggregation, differencing, and selection on an observables technique to address the endogeneity of both education and behaviors in the health production function. Using panel data for European countries, we find that education has a protective effect for European men and women aged 50+. We find that the mediating effects of health behaviors-measured by smoking, drinking, exercising, and the body mass index-account in the short run for around a quarter and in the long run for around a third of the entire effect of education on health.

More apples fewer chips? the effect of school fruit schemes on the consumption of junk food.

OBJECTIVES: Using Italian data, we evaluate the effects on the consumption of unhealthy snacks of a European Union-wide campaign providing fruit and vegetables to school children and promoting healthy diet habits. METHODS: We use scanner data of supermarket sales in the city of Rome. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we compare the sales of these snacks before and after the campaign in supermarkets located within a 500 m radius of schools that participated to the program (the treated group) and in supermarkets located outside that radius (control group). RESULTS: We find that the campaign has been effective in reducing the increase in the sales of unhealthy snacks in treated stores - relative to control stores - only in the case of regular stores, which tend to locate in the wealthier areas of Rome. No effect is found, instead, for discount stores, where people with a higher risk of developing obesity are more likely to shop. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the European School Fruit campaign has restrained the consumption of junk food in the sub-group of the population (wealthier families) who is less likely to be exposed to overweight and obesity problems, but has not been effective at all for the sub-group more at risk.

Regional differences in overweight rates: the case of Italian regions.

Southern regions in Italy are characterized by higher overweight rates than Northern and Central regions. This gap is higher for young males than for females. We fully account for the differences in overweight rates with a relatively parsimonious set of covariates, and show that the key factors accounting for these differences vary substantially by gender. There is a strong association between regional differences in educational attainment, labor market outcomes and overweight rates for females, and a strong association between regional differences in parental and peer BMI, the regional percentage of primary schools with a canteen and overweight rates for males. We are grateful to two anonymous referees and to Danilo Cavapozzi for help with the data. Financial support by Fondazione Cariparo is gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimer applies.

Does body weight affect wages? Evidence from Europe.

We use data from the European Community Household Panel to investigate the impact of body weight on wages in nine European countries. When we pool the available data across countries and years, we find that a 10% increase in the average body mass index reduces the real earnings of males and females by 3.27% and 1.86%, respectively. Since European culture, society and labour market are heterogeneous, we estimate separate regressions for Northern and Southern Europe and find that the negative impact of the body mass index on earnings is larger--and statistically significant--in the latter area.