Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/111538 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9087
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper aims at opening the black box of peer effects in adolescent weight gain. Using Add Health data on secondary schools in the U.S., we investigate whether these partly flow through the eating habits channel. Adolescents are assumed to interact through a friendship social network. We propose a two-equation model. The first equation provides a social interaction model of fast food consumption. To estimate this equation we use a quasi maximum likelihood approach that allows us to control for common environment at the network level and to solve the simultaneity (reflection) problem. Our second equation is a panel dynamic weight production function relating an individual's Body Mass Index z-score (zBMI) to his fast food consumption and his lagged zBMI, and allowing for irregular intervals in the data. Results show that there are positive but small peer effects in fast food consumption among adolescents belonging to a same friendship school network. Based on our preferred specification, the estimated social multiplier is 1.15. Our results also suggest that, in the long run, an extra day of weekly fast food restaurant visits increases zBMI by 4.45% when ignoring peer effects and by 5.11%, when they are taken into account.
Subjects: 
fast food
social interactions
peer effects
overweight
obesity
spatial models
JEL: 
C31
I10
I12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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