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Author: McAlvanah, Patrick

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1.	Courtemanche, Charles Heutel, Garth McAlvanah, Patrick
1.	Impatience, Incentives, and Obesity NBER Working Paper No. 17483, National Bureau of Economic Research, October 2011. Also: http://www.nber.org/papers/w17483 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Obesity; Time Preference This paper explores the relationship between time preferences, economic incentives, and body mass index (BMI). Using data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we first show that greater impatience increases BMI even after controlling for demographic, human capital, and occupational characteristics as well as income and risk preference. Next, we provide evidence of an interaction effect between time preference and food prices, with cheaper food leading to the largest weight gains among those exhibiting the most impatience. The interaction of changing economic incentives with heterogeneous discounting may help explain why increases in BMI have been concentrated amongst the right tail of the distribution, where the health consequences are especially severe. Lastly, we model time-inconsistent preferences by computing individuals quasi-hyperbolic discounting parameters (β and δ). Both long-run patience (δ) and present-bias (β) predict BMI, suggesting obesity is partly attributable to rational intertemporal tradeoffs but also partly to time inconsistency.
	Bibliography Citation Courtemanche, Charles, Garth Heutel and Patrick McAlvanah. "Impatience, Incentives, and Obesity." NBER Working Paper No. 17483, National Bureau of Economic Research, October 2011.

2.	Courtemanche, Charles Heutel, Garth McAlvanah, Patrick
2.	Impatience, Incentives, and Obesity The Economic Journal 125,582 (February 2015): 1-31. Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecoj.12124/abstract Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Royal Economic Society (RES) Keyword(s): Attitudes; Body Mass Index (BMI); Debt/Borrowing; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Obesity; Time Preference Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This paper explores the relationship between time preferences, economic incentives, and body mass index (BMI). We provide evidence of an interaction effect between time preference and food prices, with cheaper food leading to the largest weight gains among those exhibiting the most impatience. The interaction of changing economic incentives with heterogeneous discounting may help explain why increases in BMI have been concentrated amongst the distribution's right tail. We also model time-inconsistent preferences by computing individuals' quasi-hyperbolic discounting parameters. Both long-run patience (δ) and present-bias (β) predict BMI, suggesting obesity is partly attributable to both rational intertemporal tradeoffs and time inconsistency. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
	Bibliography Citation Courtemanche, Charles, Garth Heutel and Patrick McAlvanah. "Impatience, Incentives, and Obesity." The Economic Journal 125,582 (February 2015): 1-31.

3.	Courtemanche, Charles McAlvanah, Patrick
3.	Impatience, Incentives, and Obesity Working Paper, Social Science Research Network (SSRN), March 23, 2011. Also: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1793525 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Publisher: Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Obesity; Self-Regulation/Self-Control; Time Inconsistency; Time Preference; Time Use; Weight Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This paper explores the relationship between time preference, food prices, and body mass index (BMI). We present a model predicting that impatient individuals should both weigh more than patient individuals and experience sharper increases in weight in response to falling food prices. We then provide evidence to support these predictions using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth matched with local food prices from the Council for Community and Economic Research. Our findings suggest that the interaction of changing economic incentives with impatience can help to explain the shift to the right and thickening of the tails of the BMI distribution. Interestingly, we find no evidence of a relationship between time preference and weight loss attempts, suggesting that the observed effect on BMI represents rational inter-temporal substitution rather than self-control problems.
	Bibliography Citation Courtemanche, Charles and Patrick McAlvanah. "Impatience, Incentives, and Obesity." Working Paper, Social Science Research Network (SSRN), March 23, 2011.

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