Economics of Obesity Discussed at Seminar

John Cawley, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Economics and the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University, presented "The Economics of Obesity" at The University of Scranton's 29^th Henry George Seminar on Apr. 8 on campus. His research interests include the economics of risky health behaviors; in particular, those that relate to obesity. Examples of research projects include: the effects of food advertising on diet and of income on weight; the impact of obesity on labor market outcomes such as wages; the effect of physical education on youths; and the effectiveness of financial rewards for weight loss.

A Scranton native, Dr. Cawley is co-director of Cornell's Institute on Health Economics, Health Behaviors and Disparities. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a research fellow at the Tinbergen Institute in the Netherlands, and a research fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Germany. He is an editor of the Journal of Health Economics.