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Contribution Details
| Type | Working Paper |
| Scope | Discipline-based scholarship |
| Title | Worth your weight: experimental evidence on the benefits of obesity in low-income countries |
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| Institution | University of Zurich |
| Series Name | Working paper series / Department of Economics |
| Number | 401 |
| ISSN | 1664-7041 |
| Number of Pages | 82 |
| Date | 2022 |
| Abstract Text | I study the economic value of obesity - a seemingly inconsequential but unhealthy status symbol in poor countries. Randomizing decision-makers in Kampala, Uganda to view weight-manipulated portraits, I make four findings. First, obesity is perceived as a reliable signal of wealth rather than beauty and health. Second, being obese facilitates access to credit: in a real-stakes experiment involving loan officers, the obesity premium is comparable to raising borrower self-reported earnings by 60%. Third, asymmetric information drives this premium, which drops significantly when more financial information is provided. Fourth, obesity benefits and wealth-signaling value are commonly overestimated, raising the cost of healthy behaviors. |
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| Other Identification Number | merlin-id:21951 |
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| Keywords | Obesity, status, asymmetric information |