tailieunhanh - Fat City: Questioning the Relationship Between Urban Sprawl and Obesity

Eco-effi ciency basically means “doing more with less”. It is a management philosophy that encourages municipalities, communities and businesses to seek out environmental improvements that generate parallel economic benefi ts. 1 Social inclusiveness refers to treating all people in a city equally in their access to work and services, such as public transport and health care. “Inclusive” generally refers to planning and decision-making processes that include a broad range of people from across a city, ranging from experts to ordinary residents, with the aim of considering their inputs and reaching mutual agreement. . | Fat City Questioning the Relationship Between Urban Sprawl and Obesity Jean Eid University of Toronto Henry G. Overman t London School of Economics and CEPR Diego Puga IMDEA Universidad Carlos III and CEPR Matthew A. Turner University of Toronto First version October 2005 This version December 2007 Abstract We study the relationship between urban sprawl and obesity. Using data that tracks individuals over time we find no evidence that urban sprawl causes obesity. We show that previous findings of a positive relationship most likely reflect a failure to properly control for the fact the individuals who are more likely to be obese choose to live in more sprawling neighborhoods. Our results indicate that current interest in changing the built environment to counter the rise in obesity is misguided. Key words urban sprawl obesity selection effects JEL classification 112 R14 We are grateful to Eric Fischer Holly Olson Pat Rhoton and Molly Shannon of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics for assisting us to gain access to the Confidential Geocode Data of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. For helpful comments and suggestions we thank Vernon Henderson Matthew Kahn and Andrew Plantinga. Funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Puga and Turner the Center for Urban Health Initiatives Eid Spain s Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia SEJ2006-09993 and the Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional Puga as well as the support of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Puga and CORE Turner are gratefully acknowledged. Department of Economics University of Toronto 150 Saint George Street Toronto Ontario M5S 3G7 Canada e-mail website http jeaneid . Department of Geography and Environment London School of Economics Houghton Street London WC2A 2AE United Kingdom e-mail website http overman . Also affiliated with the Centre for Economic Performance. Madrid Institute