Article

Household Food Consumption, Individual Calories Intake and Obesity in France

Céline Bonnet, Pierre Dubois, and Valérie Orozco

Abstract

We show how to use a long period of observation of all food purchases at the household level to infer the profile of average individual caloric intakes according to the gender, age and the body mass index of household members. Using data from France, we apply this method to analyze the relationship between obesity and individual food consumption. The results show that obese or overweight individuals do absorb more calories at all ages but with differences that vary across gender and ages and across food nutrients such as carbohydrates, lipids or proteins.

JEL codes

  • H3: Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents
  • I18: Government Policy • Regulation • Public Health
  • D12: Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis

Replaces

Céline Bonnet, Pierre Dubois, and Valérie Orozco, Household Food Consumption, Individual Caloric Intake and Obesity in France, TSE Working Paper, n. 09-003, January 2009, revised May 2011.

Reference

Céline Bonnet, Pierre Dubois, and Valérie Orozco, Household Food Consumption, Individual Calories Intake and Obesity in France, Empirical Economics, vol. 46, n. 3, May 2014, pp. 1143–1166.

Published in

Empirical Economics, vol. 46, n. 3, May 2014, pp. 1143–1166