Eric Finkelstein on the Economics of Obesity

Interviewed here at the Freakonomics blog. Dr. Finkelstein is a researcher at the Research Triangle Institute in Cary, NC, and taught my undergraduate health economics class at Duke. He's been obsessed with obesity for some time (I think our 2/3 of our health econ final exam had something to do with obesity), and the post plugs his new book on the subject.

The interview is not very long, but somehow covers everything from the cost of junk foods, to agricultural subsidies, to Dance Dance Revolution and the Wii. I found this particular statement of his quite provocative (emphasis mine):

In my book, I talk a lot about my Uncle Al, a smart and successful attorney who also happens, not by accident, to be very overweight. In fact, he’s overweight because instead of spending his time dieting and exercising, he has spent his time building a very successful law firm. I see no reason why the government should get Uncle Al to change his behavior if he does not want to. Even for low-income individuals, any effort to force people to change their behavior will only serve to make them worse off (even if they do become thinner). So no, for adults, I do not think the government can, or even should, legislate obesity away.

People at the School of Medicine or Public Health would be somewhat shocked by this. Many in these disciplines favor proactive government measures (taxes, regulations) to reduce obesity. Their argument typically combines paternalism (people want to lose weight, but suck at it so the government should intervene) and economics (obese people impose externalities on others).

Needless to say, I am looking forward to reading Finkelstein's book.