Boizot-Szantai, Christine <br/><br/>
Food Prices and the Distribution of Body Mass Index in France 

 -  2009.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> Are individual differences in Body Mass Index ( bmi) related to differences in food prices? French food scanner data are used to estimate the effect of the prices of 23 food product categories covering food-at-home consumption on the bmi distribution in a sample of French adults. Using quantile regressions, we find significant negative elasticities to the prices of cheeses, oils, pastries and deserts, and ready-meals for marginally overweight or obese women and to the prices of non-alcoholic beverages and ready-meals for marginally overweight men. These estimates of the price- bmi regressions should be read cautiously, as omission of unobserved factors such as individual physical activity levels may bias the results. Classification JEL: D12, H2, I12, I18