Obesity is significantly more prevalent among non-Hispanic African-American (henceforth "black") women than among non]Hispanic white American (henceforth gwhiteh) women. These differences have persisted without much alteration since the early 1970s, despite substantial increases in the rates of...

We test for differences across the two most recent NHANES survey periods (19881994 and 1999 2004) in self-perception of weight status. We find that the probability of self-classifying as overweight is significantly lower on average in the more recent survey, for both men and women, controlling...

Policymakers have an interest in identifying the differences in behavior patterns - namely, habitual caloric intake and physical activity levels - that contribute to demographic variation in body mass index (BMI) and obesity risk. While disparities in mean BMI and obesity rates between whites...

Previous studies on the spread of obesity in social networks have focused on the contemporaneous effect of peer weight outcomes on individuals. The present paper is the first to investigate the longer term effects, within adolescence and from adolescence into early adulthood, of peers on...

Obesity is significantly more prevalent among non-Hispanic African-American (henceforth "black") women than among non-Hispanic white American (henceforth "white") women. These differences have persisted without much alteration since the early 1970s, despite substantial increases in the rates of...

We test for differences across the two most recent NHANES survey periods (1988-1994 and 1999-2004) in self-perception of weight status. We find that the probability of self-classifying as overweight is significantly lower on average in the more recent survey, for both men and women, controlling...