| The high and rapidly rising adult obesity rates in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand are associated with major health risks, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, and some forms of cancer; large health care costs; and premature deaths annually. For example, the death rate from diabetes mellitus has been rising in the U.S. In contrast, death rates from circulator diseases have a strong negative trend, but rising obesity rates almost certainly have slowed this trend. This paper focuses on obesity-related mortality from diabetes and circulatory diseases and establishes the econometric underpinning of an aggregate household health production function and an aggregate household health supply function using data for 15... |
