Accounting for the evolution of sedentarism on minimum dietary energy requirements

Abstract

Estimates of food-insecure populations are biased upwards, lacking adjustment for global increases in sedentary behavior in recent decades. We construct a household model to account for sedentary choices during leisure and work time decisions. The model rationalizes increasing sedentary behavior from the household by accounting for increasing returns to cognitive human capital vs physical capital, alongside increased productivity of more sedentary activities both at work and at home. The household model informs an empirical model applied to our unique international pseudo-panel data on sitting time, proxy-ing for sedentarism. We econometrically estimate a transfer function linking sedentarism to widely available covariates and make out-of-sample predictions. It is applicable to most countries. The estimated sedentary time can be used to adjust the physical activity level reflected in the minimum dietary energy requirement used to determine a cutoff for food insecurity.