Arizona State and Local Government Documents Collection
The State and Local Arizona Documents (SALAD) collection contains documents published by the State of Arizona, its Counties, incorporated Cities or Towns, or affiliated Councils of Government; documents produced under the auspices of a state or local agency, board, commission or department, including reports made to these units; and Salt River Project, a licensed municipality. ASU is a primary collector of state publications and makes a concerted effort to acquire and catalog most materials published by state and local governmental agencies.
The ASU Digital Repository provides access to digital SALAD publications, however the ASU Libraries’ non-digitized Arizona documents can be searched through the ASU Libraries Catalog. For additional assistance, Ask A Government Documents Librarian.
Publications issued by the Morrison Institute for Public Programs at Arizona State University are also available in PRISM, in the Morrison Institute for Public Policy - Publications Archive collection.
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Compulsive eaters
- Creators: Morrison School of Agribusiness and Resource Management
Widespread obesity in the U.S. is a relatively recent phenomenon, reaching epidemic proportions only in the last 15 years. However, existing research shows that while calorie expenditure through physical activity has not changed appreciably since 1980, calorie consumption has risen dramatically. Consequently, any explanation of obesity must address the reason why consumers tend to overeat in spite of somewhat obvious future health implications. This study tests for an addiction to food nutrients as a potential explanation for the obesity epidemic. Specifically, we use a random coefficients (mixed) logit model applied to household scanner data to test a multivariate version of the rational addiction model of Becker and Murphy and Chaloupka. We find evidence of a rational addiction to all nutrients – protein, fat and carbohydrates – as well as to sodium, but particularly strong evidence of a forward-looking addiction to carbohydrates. The implication of this finding is that price-based policies – sin taxes or produce subsidies that change the expected future costs and benefits of consuming carbohydrate-intensive foods – may be effective in controlling excessive nutrient intake.