Loureiro, M.L, Yen, S., Nayga, R. (2012) “The effects of Nutritional Labels on Obesity” Agricultural Economics, 43(3), 333-342.

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between nutritional label use and obesity using switching regression. Results for treatment effect show that nutritional labels play a role in reducing obesity among users of nutritional labels, notably among women. The average body mass index (BMI) for men who read nutritional labels is 0.12 point lower than men who do not read them, while women who are users of nutritional labels have 1.49 points lower BMI than women who do not read labels. These findings imply that health education campaigns can employ nutritional labels as one of the instruments for reducing obesity.