John Cawley
Biographic Data
| ID | 86934 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John Cawley |
| GIVEN NAMES | John |
| FAMILY NAME | Cawley |
| SIGNATURE | CAWLEY J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cornell University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4805-9883 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 34 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 140 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 34 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
The role of repugnance in markets
Genetic nurture in educational attainment
Oakland’s sugar-sweetened beverage tax
The Impact of the Philadelphia Beverage Tax on Prices and Product Availability
In recent years, numerous cities in the U.S. have enacted taxes on beverages to promote health and raise revenue. This paper examines the impact of Philadelphia's beverage tax, enacted in 2017, on the prices and availability of both taxed and untaxed beverages. Using original data we collected in late 2016 and again one year later, we estimate difference‐in‐differences regressions of the change over time in beverage prices and availability in sto…
The Impact of Information Disclosure on Consumer Behavior
In 2018, the U.S. adopted a nationwide law requiring that chain restaurants post calorie counts on their menus and menu boards. This has led to considerable interest in the extent to which providing calorie information leads consumers to choose healthier diets. To estimate the impact of calorie labeling, we conducted a randomized controlled field experiment in two full‐service restaurants, in which the control group received menus without calorie…
Effect of Medicaid Expansions of 2014 on Overall and Early-Stage Cancer Diagnoses
Objectives. To determine whether the 2014 Medicaid expansions facilitated by the Affordable Care Act affected overall and early-stage cancer diagnosis for nonelderly adults. Methods. We used Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Cancer Registry data from 2010 through 2014 to estimate a difference-in-differences model of cancer diagnosis rates, both overall and by stage, comparing changes in county-level diagnosis rates in US states that exp…
The Impact of Health Insurance on Preventive Care and Health Behaviors
The U.S. population receives suboptimal levels of preventive care and has a high prevalence of risky health behaviors. One goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to increase preventive care and improve health behaviors by expanding access to health insurance. This paper estimates how the ACA-facilitated state-level expansions of Medicaid in 2014 affected these outcomes. Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and a diff…
Contents for Volume 36
Parental misclassification of child overweight/obese status
The Pass‐Through of Taxes on Sugar‐Sweetened Beverages to Retail Prices
Obesity and diet‐related chronic disease are increasing problems worldwide. In response, many governments have enacted or are considering taxes on energy‐dense foods. Perhaps the most commonly recommended policy is a tax on sugar‐sweetened beverages (SSBs). This paper estimates the extent to which a tax on SSBs is passed through to consumers in the form of higher prices. We examine the first city‐level tax on SSBs in the United States, which was …
An economy of scales
Patchy progress on obesity prevention
Reporting error in weight and its implications for bias in economic models
The impact of a supermarket nutrition rating system on purchases of nutritious and less nutritious foods
Objective The current study examines the impact of a nutrition rating system on consumers’ food purchases in supermarkets. Design Aggregate sales data for 102 categories of food (over 60 000 brands) on a weekly basis for 2005–2007 from a supermarket chain of over 150 stores are analysed. Change in weekly sales of nutritious and less nutritious foods, after the introduction of a nutrition rating system on store shelves, is calculated, controlling …
Authors’ response
Regarding the paper 'The impact of a supermarket nutrition rating system on purchases of nutritious and less nutritious foods' by Cawley et al
The effect of rising obesity on eligibility to serve in the U.S. public health service commissioned corps
Incentives for Wellness
Morgan Downey raises several interesting issues in his essay. We agree on several points, for example, that current regulations are "really quite porous," with the result that enrollees will be able to get the rewards even if they do not alter their health behaviors. There are also several areas of disagreement that merit further discussion, and I focus on those in this essay. To provide context, my position is that financial incentives for healt…
The Affordable Care Act Permits Greater Financial Rewards for Weight Loss
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) increased the maximum rewards that group health insurance plans (including employers who self-insure) may offer in their wellness programs, with the goal of incentivizing healthy behaviors such as weight loss among the obese and smoking cessation. In this essay, I describe the history and intention of such programs, and make the following three points: (1) In principle, incentivizing he…
The medical care costs of obesity
Maternal employment and childhood obesity
The Job Market for New Economists
This paper, written by the members of the American Economic Association (AEA) Ad Hoc Committee on the Job Market, provides an overview of the market for new Ph.D. economists. It describes the role of the AEA in the market and focuses in particular on two mechanisms adopted in recent years at the suggestion of our Committee. First, job market applicants now have a signaling service to send an expression of special interest to up to two employers p…
Obesity and labor market outcomes among legal immigrants to the United States from developing countries
The timing of the rise in U.S. obesity varies with measure of fatness
Adding Biomeasures Relating to Fatness and Obesity to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics
The pace of research on the causes and consequences of obesity has increased dramatically since the late 1990s. However, a great chasm exists between the high-quality measurements of fatness used in the medical literature and the mostly self-reported height and weight data found in social science surveys. This article discusses the scientific value of including more accurate measures of fatness in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). It des…
Beyond BMI
The Impact of Health Insurance on Preventive Care and Health Behaviors
The U.S. population receives suboptimal levels of preventive care and has a high prevalence of risky health behaviors. One goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to increase preventive care and improve health behaviors by expanding access to health insurance. This paper estimates how the ACA-facilitated state-level expansions of Medicaid in 2014 affected these outcomes. Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and a diff…
The Pass‐Through of Taxes on Sugar‐Sweetened Beverages to Retail Prices
Obesity and diet‐related chronic disease are increasing problems worldwide. In response, many governments have enacted or are considering taxes on energy‐dense foods. Perhaps the most commonly recommended policy is a tax on sugar‐sweetened beverages (SSBs). This paper estimates the extent to which a tax on SSBs is passed through to consumers in the form of higher prices. We examine the first city‐level tax on SSBs in the United States, which was …
Size Matters
We examine the relationship between body size (specifically, weight and height) and dating and sexual activity using two large, nationally representative, longitudinal data sets. Our conceptual framework assumes that the utility an adolescent derives from dating and sexual activity is a function of the weight and height of his or her partner, and it predicts that heavier and shorter adolescents will be less likely to date and have sex. Empirical …
Body Weight and Matching With a Physically Attractive Romantic Partner
Matching and attribute trade are two perspectives used to explain mate selection. We investigated patterns of matching and trade, focusing on obesity, using Add Health Romantic Pair data (N = 1,405 couples). Obese individuals, relative to healthy weight individuals, were less likely to have physically attractive partners, with this disadvantage greater for women than men, and greater for White women than Black women. Additional education, a more …
Morbid obesity and the transition from welfare to work
This paper utilizes a rich longitudinal data set--the Women's Employment Study (WES)--to investigate whether obesity, which is common among women of low socioeconomic status, is a barrier to employment and earnings for current and former welfare recipients. We find that former welfare recipients who are both White and morbidly obese have been less successful in transitioning from welfare to work. These women are less likely to work at any survey …
The Impact of Information Disclosure on Consumer Behavior
In 2018, the U.S. adopted a nationwide law requiring that chain restaurants post calorie counts on their menus and menu boards. This has led to considerable interest in the extent to which providing calorie information leads consumers to choose healthier diets. To estimate the impact of calorie labeling, we conducted a randomized controlled field experiment in two full‐service restaurants, in which the control group received menus without calorie…
Effect of Medicaid Expansions of 2014 on Overall and Early-Stage Cancer Diagnoses
Objectives. To determine whether the 2014 Medicaid expansions facilitated by the Affordable Care Act affected overall and early-stage cancer diagnosis for nonelderly adults. Methods. We used Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Cancer Registry data from 2010 through 2014 to estimate a difference-in-differences model of cancer diagnosis rates, both overall and by stage, comparing changes in county-level diagnosis rates in US states that exp…
The Impact of the Philadelphia Beverage Tax on Prices and Product Availability
In recent years, numerous cities in the U.S. have enacted taxes on beverages to promote health and raise revenue. This paper examines the impact of Philadelphia's beverage tax, enacted in 2017, on the prices and availability of both taxed and untaxed beverages. Using original data we collected in late 2016 and again one year later, we estimate difference‐in‐differences regressions of the change over time in beverage prices and availability in sto…
The Job Market for New Economists
This paper, written by the members of the American Economic Association (AEA) Ad Hoc Committee on the Job Market, provides an overview of the market for new Ph.D. economists. It describes the role of the AEA in the market and focuses in particular on two mechanisms adopted in recent years at the suggestion of our Committee. First, job market applicants now have a signaling service to send an expression of special interest to up to two employers p…
What explains race and gender differences in the relationship between obesity and wages
The Affordable Care Act Permits Greater Financial Rewards for Weight Loss
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) increased the maximum rewards that group health insurance plans (including employers who self-insure) may offer in their wellness programs, with the goal of incentivizing healthy behaviors such as weight loss among the obese and smoking cessation. In this essay, I describe the history and intention of such programs, and make the following three points: (1) In principle, incentivizing he…
Adding Biomeasures Relating to Fatness and Obesity to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics
The pace of research on the causes and consequences of obesity has increased dramatically since the late 1990s. However, a great chasm exists between the high-quality measurements of fatness used in the medical literature and the mostly self-reported height and weight data found in social science surveys. This article discusses the scientific value of including more accurate measures of fatness in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). It des…
On Policies to Reward the Value Added by Educators
One current educational reform seeks to reward the “value added” by teachers and schools based on the average change in pupil test scores over time. In this paper, we outline the conditions under which the average change in scores is sufficient to rank schools in terms of value added. A key condition is that socioeconomic outcomes be a linear function of test scores. Absent this condition, one can still derive the optimal value-added policy if on…
What explains race and gender differences in the relationship between obesity and wages
The Impact of Obesity on Wages
Substance Use
The economics of substance use and abuse deals with the consumption of goods that share two properties. First, they are addictive in the sense that an increase in past consumption of the good leads to an increase in current consumption. Second, their consumption harms the consumer and others. This second property makes them of interest from policy, legal, and public health perspectives. The tremendous expansion in research in the economics of sub…
Morbid obesity and the transition from welfare to work
This paper utilizes a rich longitudinal data set--the Women's Employment Study (WES)--to investigate whether obesity, which is common among women of low socioeconomic status, is a barrier to employment and earnings for current and former welfare recipients. We find that former welfare recipients who are both White and morbidly obese have been less successful in transitioning from welfare to work. These women are less likely to work at any survey …
Size Matters
We examine the relationship between body size (specifically, weight and height) and dating and sexual activity using two large, nationally representative, longitudinal data sets. Our conceptual framework assumes that the utility an adolescent derives from dating and sexual activity is a function of the weight and height of his or her partner, and it predicts that heavier and shorter adolescents will be less likely to date and have sex. Empirical …
Beyond BMI
Obesity and skill attainment in early childhood
Contingent valuation analysis of willingness to pay to reduce childhood obesity
Body Weight and Matching With a Physically Attractive Romantic Partner
Matching and attribute trade are two perspectives used to explain mate selection. We investigated patterns of matching and trade, focusing on obesity, using Add Health Romantic Pair data (N = 1,405 couples). Obese individuals, relative to healthy weight individuals, were less likely to have physically attractive partners, with this disadvantage greater for women than men, and greater for White women than Black women. Additional education, a more …
Obesity and labor market outcomes among legal immigrants to the United States from developing countries
The timing of the rise in U.S. obesity varies with measure of fatness
Adding Biomeasures Relating to Fatness and Obesity to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics
The pace of research on the causes and consequences of obesity has increased dramatically since the late 1990s. However, a great chasm exists between the high-quality measurements of fatness used in the medical literature and the mostly self-reported height and weight data found in social science surveys. This article discusses the scientific value of including more accurate measures of fatness in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). It des…
The Job Market for New Economists
This paper, written by the members of the American Economic Association (AEA) Ad Hoc Committee on the Job Market, provides an overview of the market for new Ph.D. economists. It describes the role of the AEA in the market and focuses in particular on two mechanisms adopted in recent years at the suggestion of our Committee. First, job market applicants now have a signaling service to send an expression of special interest to up to two employers p…
The medical care costs of obesity
Maternal employment and childhood obesity
The effect of rising obesity on eligibility to serve in the U.S. public health service commissioned corps
Incentives for Wellness
Morgan Downey raises several interesting issues in his essay. We agree on several points, for example, that current regulations are "really quite porous," with the result that enrollees will be able to get the rewards even if they do not alter their health behaviors. There are also several areas of disagreement that merit further discussion, and I focus on those in this essay. To provide context, my position is that financial incentives for healt…
The Affordable Care Act Permits Greater Financial Rewards for Weight Loss
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) increased the maximum rewards that group health insurance plans (including employers who self-insure) may offer in their wellness programs, with the goal of incentivizing healthy behaviors such as weight loss among the obese and smoking cessation. In this essay, I describe the history and intention of such programs, and make the following three points: (1) In principle, incentivizing he…
An economy of scales
Patchy progress on obesity prevention
Reporting error in weight and its implications for bias in economic models
The impact of a supermarket nutrition rating system on purchases of nutritious and less nutritious foods
Objective The current study examines the impact of a nutrition rating system on consumers’ food purchases in supermarkets. Design Aggregate sales data for 102 categories of food (over 60 000 brands) on a weekly basis for 2005–2007 from a supermarket chain of over 150 stores are analysed. Change in weekly sales of nutritious and less nutritious foods, after the introduction of a nutrition rating system on store shelves, is calculated, controlling …
Authors’ response
Regarding the paper 'The impact of a supermarket nutrition rating system on purchases of nutritious and less nutritious foods' by Cawley et al
Parental misclassification of child overweight/obese status
Medicine (23 works) · Economics (21 works) · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet (20 works) · Obesity (17 works) · Psychology (16 works) · Environmental health (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Demography (10 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Business (8 works)