The Intergenerational Transmission of Adiposity across Countries

There is a worldwide epidemic of obesity. We are only slowly beginning to understand its causes and consequences. This paper addresses one important component of the crisis – namely the extent to which obesity – or more generally adiposity is passed down from one generation to the next. Using the BMI as a measure of adiposity, we find that the intergenerational transmission of adiposity is relatively high and very comparable across time and countries – even if these countries are at a very different stage of economic development. Our second key finding is that this intergenerational transmission mechanism is very different across the distribution of children‘s BMI. Most specifically it is up to double for the fattest children what it is for the thinnest children. This has enormous consequences for the health of the world‘s children. Address for Correspondence: Prof Peter Dolton Department of Economic University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9SL