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Who Responds To Financial Incentives For Weight Loss? Evidence From A Randomized Controlled Trial, Alfredo R. Paloyo, Arndt R. Reichert, Monika Reuss-Borst, Harald Tauchmann

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

There is a paucity of evidence on the heterogeneous impacts of financial incentives on weight loss. Between March 2010 and January 2012, in a randomized controlled trial, we assigned 700 obese persons to three experimental arms. We test whether particular subgroups react differently to financial incentives for weight loss. Two treatment groups obtained a cash reward (€150 and €300 with 237 and 229 participants, respectively) for achieving an individually-assigned target weight within four months; the control group (234 participants) was not incentivized. Participants and administrators were not blinded to the intervention. We find that monetary rewards effectively induced obese individuals …