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Demographic Differences In The Causal Effects Of Obesity Status On Child Academic Achievement, Yoshie Hayasaka Kim

Theses and Dissertations

Many studies have found a negative correlation between obesity and academic achievement; however, determining and reaching a consensus about the nature of causality between these two variables have posed a challenge for scholars and researchers. If obesity does indeed have a negative causal effect on academic achievement, it has significant policy implications as it affects human capital investment. In this paper, I use the National Longitudinal Study of Youth-1979, Child and Young Adult data and estimate OLS, FE, traditional IV, and Lewbel IV models for children ages 5-12, stratified by race and gender. Under an individual fixed-effects model, I find …