Tackling obesity through behavioral economics? Perhaps not (only)…
I have just discovered an article written by George Loewenstein and Peter Ubel -two founding fathers of behavioral economics- in the NY Times on 15 July. I know, I am late (summer, holidays…) and the article has already been commented by many (see for instance 1, 2). Still, it’s worth mentioning -the authors make the case that too much hope rests on behavioral economics to guide policy today, and that demands by politicians do not match what researchers in the field can actually offer. Sometimes, good old traditional economics would offer more effective solutions -but alas, they can be less politically palatable.
One example the authors insist on is obesity in the US -and this is the main reason why I am mentioning their view here at all. The fashionable response to rising obesity levels is to better inform consumers, for instance through calorie posting in restaurants. But this is unlikely to work, say Loewenstein and Ubel, unless the relative prices of junk and healthy food are reversed. This requires adjusting subsidies and taxes, much as traditional economics would suggest; but this might alienate interest groups in agriculture and the food industry.
A lot of food for thought, definitely…
Filed under: Consumer behaviour, Economic theory, Socioeconomic studies of health | Leave a Comment
Tags: Behavioral economics, Eating behaviors, Food choices, Obesity, Public policy analysis
Paola Tubaro
I am an economic sociologist with interest in social networks and their impact on markets, organisations, consumer choice and health.
My research also includes work in social science methodology and data.Creative Commons Licence
Paola Tubaro's Blog by Paola Tubaro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at paolatubaro.wordpress.com.
No Responses Yet to “Tackling obesity through behavioral economics? Perhaps not (only)…”