Worth Your Weight: Experimental Evidence on the Benefits of Obesity in Low-Income Countries

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Macchi, Elisa
• 署名单位: Brown University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20211879
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 2287-2322
• 关键词: discrimination theory; field experiment; credit; DYNAMICS; returns; COSTS

摘要

I study the economic value of obesity-a status symbol in poor countries associated with raised health risks. Randomizing decision-makers in Kampala, Uganda to view weight-manipulated portraits, I find that obesity is perceived as a reliable signal of wealth but not of beauty or health. Thus, leveraging a real-stakes experi-ment involving professional loan officers, I show that being obese facilitates access to credit. The large obesity premium, compara-ble to raising borrower self-reported earnings by over 60 percent, is driven by asymmetric information and drops significantly when providing more financial information. Notably, obesity benefits and wealth-signaling value are commonly overestimated, suggesting market distortions. (JEL D82, G21, G51, I12, O16, Z13)