• DOI:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2011.10.003
Corpus ID: 6717295

The Medical Care Costs of Obesity: an Instrumental Variables Approach

@article{Cawley2012TheMC,
  title={The Medical Care Costs of Obesity: an Instrumental Variables Approach},
  author={John Cawley and Chad D. Meyerhoefer},
  journal={NBER Working Paper Series},
  year={2012}
}

John Cawley, Chad D. Meyerhoefer

Published 2012

Medicine, Economics

NBER Working Paper Series

This paper is the first to use the method of instrumental variables (IV) to estimate the impact of obesity on medical costs in order to address the endogeneity of weight and to reduce the bias from reporting error in weight. Models are estimated using restricted-use data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for 2000-2005. The IV model, which exploits genetic variation in weight as a natural experiment, yields estimates of the impact of obesity on medical costs that are considerably higher… CONTINUE READING

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