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Economics

Syracuse University

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Public Housing

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The Link Between Gentrification, Children’S Egocentric Food Environment, And Obesity, Christopher Rick, Jeehee Han, Spencer Shanholtz, Amy Ellen Schwartz Jan 2022

The Link Between Gentrification, Children’S Egocentric Food Environment, And Obesity, Christopher Rick, Jeehee Han, Spencer Shanholtz, Amy Ellen Schwartz

Center for Policy Research

While advocates argue that gentrification changes the neighborhood food environment critical to children’s diet and health, we have little evidence documenting such changes or the consequences for their health outcomes. Using rich longitudinal, individual-level data on nearly 115,000 New York City children, including egocentric measures of their food environment and BMI, we examine the link between neighborhood demographic change (“gentrification”), children’s access to restaurants and supermarkets, and their weight outcomes. We find that children in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods see increased access to fast food and wait-service restaurants and reduced access to corner stores and supermarkets compared to those in non-gentrifying …


Does Proximity To Fast Food Cause Childhood Obesity? Evidence From Public Housing, Jeehee Han, Amy Ellen Schwartz, Brian Elbel May 2020

Does Proximity To Fast Food Cause Childhood Obesity? Evidence From Public Housing, Jeehee Han, Amy Ellen Schwartz, Brian Elbel

Center for Policy Research

We examine the causal link between proximity to fast food and the incidence of childhood obesity among low-income households in New York City. Using individual-level longitudinal data on students living in public housing linked to restaurant location data, we exploit the naturally occurring within-development variation in distance to fast food restaurants to estimate the impact of proximity on obesity. Since the assignment of households to specific buildings is based upon availability at the time of assignment to public housing, the distance between student residence and retail outlets—including fast food restaurants, wait-service restaurants, supermarkets, and corner stores—is plausibly random. Our credibly …