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Author: Bao, Yanjun
Resulting in 3 citations.
1. Bao, Yanjun
The Effects of Family Structure and Parental Resources on Child Body Weight
Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago, May 2007.
Also: http://www.uic.edu/cba/cba-depts/economics/job_candidate.html
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago
Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Child Health; Family Structure; Hispanics; Household Composition; Obesity; Weight

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Using a panel of children aged 2-17 years between 1986 and 2002 from the merged mother-child files from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, this study examines the effects of family structure on child Body Mass Index (BMI) and obesity. Compared with children in other types of family structure, children living with married mothers have lower BMI and reduced probabilities of obesity. The reductions in BMI and obesity probability are larger as mothers are married for an increased number of years. The findings persist after controlling for a rich set of explanatory variables including family income and maternal work status, and in first-difference estimations that account for unobserved heterogeneity. The protective effect of living with married mothers against higher BMI and obesity is found for girls but not boys, for non-Hispanic black children but not non-Hispanic white children or Hispanic children. For the average child, relative to having a mother who is never married, having a mother who is married for all the years during the child's lifetime reduces BMI by 0.38 units and the obesity probability by 3.48 percentage points. The same exercises result in reductions in obesity probabilities of 4.56 and 6.16 percentage points respectively for girls and for non-Hispanic black children.
Bibliography Citation
Bao, Yanjun. The Effects of Family Structure and Parental Resources on Child Body Weight. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago, May 2007..
2. Powell, Lisa M.
Bao, Yanjun
Food Prices, Access to Food Outlets and Child Weight
Economics and Human Biology 7,1 (March 2009): 64-72.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X09000070
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Child Growth; Child Health; Data Linkage (also see Record Linkage); Geocoded Data; Geographical Variation; Modeling, Random Effects; Mothers, Education; Obesity; Socioeconomic Status (SES)

This study examines the importance of food prices and restaurant and food store outlet availability for child body mass index (BMI). We use the 1998, 2000 and 2002 waves of the child–mother merged files from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth combined with fruit and vegetable and fast food price data obtained from the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association and outlet density data on fast food and full-service restaurants and supermarkets, grocery stores and convenience stores obtained from Dun & Bradstreet. Using a random effects estimation model, we found that a 10% increase in the price of fruits and vegetables was associated with a 0.7% increase in child BMI. Fast food prices were not found to be statistically significant in the full sample but were weakly negatively associated with BMI among adolescents with an estimated price elasticity of -0.12. The price estimates were robust to whether we controlled for outlet availability based on a per capita or per land area basis; however, the association between food outlets and child BMI differed depending on the definition. The associations of fruit and vegetable and fast food prices with BMI were significantly stronger both economically and statistically among low- versus high-socioeconomic status children. The estimated fruit and vegetable and fast food price elasticities were 0.14 and -0.26, respectively, among low-income children and 0.09 and -0.13, respectively, among children with less educated mothers.
Bibliography Citation
Powell, Lisa M. and Yanjun Bao. "Food Prices, Access to Food Outlets and Child Weight." Economics and Human Biology 7,1 (March 2009): 64-72.
3. Powell, Lisa M.
Bao, Yanjun
Food Prices, Access to Food Outlets and Child Weight Outcomes: A Longitudinal Analysis
Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago, May 2007
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago
Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Child Health; Data Linkage (also see Record Linkage); Geocoded Data; Geographical Variation; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Nutritional Status/Nutrition/Consumption Behaviors; Obesity; Weight

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This study examines the importance of food prices and restaurant and food store outlet availability for child body mass index (BMI) and ordered categorical weight outcomes. We use child-mother merged files from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth combined with fast food and fruit and vegetable price data obtained from the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association and outlet density data on fast food and full-service restaurants and supermarkets, grocery stores and convenience stores obtained from Dun & Bradstreet. We estimate naïve ordinary least squares, random-effects and child fixed-effects BMI models and generalized ordered probit and random-effects generalized ordered probit models of underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obesity for children aged 6 to 17. We also estimate separate models by children's age and race, family income, and mother's education status. Accounting for unobserved heterogeneity using random-effects estimation models, we find that a 10% increase in the price of fruits and vegetables increases BMI by 0.5% and lowers the prevalence of obesity by 4%. The price of fast food and the availability of restaurants and food stores are not found to be statistically significantly related to children's BMI or obesity. However, higher fast food prices are found to be weakly statistically significantly related to lower BMI among older children. Further analyses by sub-groups find the BMI of children in lower income families and those with lower educated mothers to be particularly sensitive to the price of fruits and vegetables suggesting that targeted subsidies for healthful foods may be an effective policy instrument for addressing child obesity in low-socioeconomic status families.
Bibliography Citation
Powell, Lisa M. and Yanjun Bao. "Food Prices, Access to Food Outlets and Child Weight Outcomes: A Longitudinal Analysis." Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago, May 2007.