Can Nutritional Label Use Influence Body Weight Outcomes?

Nutritional labeling has been of much interest to policy makers and health advocates due to rising obesity trends. So can nutritional label use really help reduce body weight outcomes? This study evaluates the impact of nutritional label use on body weight using the propensity score matching technique. We conducted a series of tests related to variable choice of the propensity score specification, quality of matching indicators, robustness checks, and sensitivity to unobserved heterogeneity using Rosenbaum bounds to validate our propensity score exercise. Our results generally suggest that nutritional label use does not affect body mass index. Implications of our findings are discussed.