Economic crises and obesity: evidence and mechanism from the United States

Existing studies that explore the relationship between business cycles and health remain debated. This study investigates the effects of economic fluctuation on obesity in the United States. Using the county-level unemployment rates from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we find that people are less likely to be obese during economic downturns. Particularly, a one percentage points increase in unemployment rates would lead to the chances of being obese reduced by 0.45% points. We further explore the underlying mechanisms of how business fluctuations affect obesity. We find that people tend to do more exercise and spend less on food expenditure during the economic downturns.