There's a silver lining to high gasoline prices after all: They should make us thinner.
At least, that's the bold conclusion that Washington University researcher Charles Courtemanche reached after studying the linkage between pump prices and America's waistlines. Specifically, he finds that 13 percent of the rise in obesity between 1979 and 2004 can be attributed to cheap gasoline.
Why does the money we save at the pump go straight to our waists? Courtemanche presents evidence to support two reasons.
First, when gasoline is cheap we drive more and walk less. We also take public transit less, and riding public transit at least involves a short walk to the bus stop or train station.
Second, when driving is inexpensive we eat more meals away from home. Other researchers have found that the typical restaurant meal contains 350 more calories than the home-cooked alternative.
Correlation isn't causality, of course, but Courtemanche used various statistical techniques to make sure his results were robust. He also compared gasoline prices with surveys about how often people exercise and how often they eat at restaurants. The results were what he expected: Cheap gas keeps us off our feet and out of the kitchen.
The big question is what to do with this finding. If increasing the price of gasoline by $1 will reduce obesity by 15 percent, should the government jack up taxes by that amount? After all, our addiction to cheap gasoline already has been blamed for causing global warming and putting money into the hands of Middle Eastern despots. Now it's making us fat, too.
Not so fast. Poverty is strongly correlated with obesity, and a steep gas tax would hit low-income people hard.
"We would want to stop short of pushing any policy that is going to make people poorer," Courtemanche said. If we use higher gasoline taxes as a public-health measure, he said, we should cut some other tax, such as the payroll tax, to protect the incomes of high-risk groups.
| • | WUSTL researcher sees link between gas prices and waistlines
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Friday, Sept. 14, 2007 Byline: David Nicklaus, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH |
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