Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/110855 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 5351
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We examine the vertical transmission of overweight drawing upon a sample of English children, both adopted and non-adopted, and their families. Our results suggest strong evidence of an intergenerational association of overweight among adoptees, indicating transmission through cultural factors. We find that, when both adoptive parents are overweight, the likelihood of an adopted child being overweight is between 10% and 20% higher than when they are not. We also find that the cultural transmission of overweight is not aggravated by having a full-time working mother, so do not confirm the existence of a female labour market participation penalty on child overweight among adoptees. Overall, our findings, despite subject to data limitations, are robust to a battery of robustness checks, specification and sample selection corrections.
Subjects: 
vertical transmission
cultural transmission
overweight
children
natural parents
Body Mass Index
sample selection
JEL: 
I18
D13
Z10
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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