Time preferences and obesity: Evidence from urban India

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between agents’ behavioral attributes (or time preferences) and the problem of obesity and, more generally, problems of both overnutrition and undernutrition. Through a primary survey in western Delhi data were gathered on participants’ food choices and body mass index. Time preferences, as posited by the ($\beta ,\delta$) quasi-hyperbolic discounting model, were elicited using an incentivized, choice-based experiment. Estimating a simultaneous two-equation model, the article finds that individuals in the sample with lower β and/or lower δ (or higher time preferences) make unhealthy food choices, which, in turn, significantly increases their BMI. In addition, a supplementary empirical exercise analyzes a large, secondary unit record data set, with savings as a proxy for time preferences, to provide evidence that these behavioral attributes also explain the problem of underweight (germane in developing countries).