Is poor fitness contagious? Evidence from randomly assigned friends

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Carrell, Scott E.; Hoekstra, Mark; West, James E.
• 署名单位: Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); University of Pittsburgh; University of California System; University of California Davis; United States Department of Defense; United States Air Force; United States Air Force Academy
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.12.005
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 657-663
• 关键词: Peer effects; Physical fitness; obesity; social networks

摘要

The increase in obesity over the past 30 years has led researchers to investigate the role of social networks as a contributing factor. However, several challenges make it difficult to demonstrate a causal link between friends' physical fitness and own fitness using observational data. To overcome these problems, we exploit data from a unique setting in which individuals are randomly assigned to peer groups. We find statistically significant positive peer effects that are roughly half as large as the own effect of prior fitness on current fitness. Evidence suggests that the effects are caused primarily by friends who were the least fit, thus supporting the provocative notion that poor physical fitness spreads on a person-to-person basis. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.