@article{Parks:162519,
      recid = {162519},
      author = {Parks, Joanna C. and Alston, Julian M. and Okrent, Abigail  M.},
      title = {The Marginal External Cost of Obesity in the United  States},
      address = {2012-05},
      number = {1578-2016-134032},
      series = {RMI-CWE},
      pages = {35},
      year = {2012},
      abstract = {Over the past five decades in the United States both total  medical expenditures and
the proportion of medical  expenditures financed with public funds have increased  significantly. A substantial increase in the prevalence of  obesity has contributed to this growth. In this study we  measure the external cost of obesity, in the form of  publicly funded health-care expenditures, and how this cost  changes when the distribution of
obesity in the population  changes. We use a continuous measure of obesity, BMI,  rather
than discrete weight categories to represent the  distribution of obesity and changes in
it. We predict that  a 1-unit increase in BMI for every adult in the United  States would
increase annual public medical expenditures by  $38.7 billion. This estimated public cost
equates to an  average marginal cost of $175 per year per adult for a one  unit change in
BMI for each adult in the U.S. population.  Separately, we estimate that if every U.S.
adult who is now  obese (BMI >=30) had a BMI of 25 instead, annual public  medical expenditures would decline by $173.7 billion (in  constant 2008$), or 17.2% of annual public medical  expenditures in 2008. Assuming a socially optimal BMI of no  more than 25, we estimate that the prevalence of obesity in  2008 resulted in a deadweight loss of
$216.7 billion in  2008.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/162519},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.162519},
}