TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bhattacharya, Jay
AU  - Currie, Janet
TI  - Youths at Nutritional Risk: Malnourished or Misnourished?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7686
PY  - 2000
Y2  - May 2000
DO  - 10.3386/w7686
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7686
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7686.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jay Bhattacharya
117 Encina Commons
CHP/PCOR
Stanford University
Stanford, CA  94305-6019
Tel: 650/736-0404
Fax: 650/723-1919
E-Mail: jay@stanford.edu

Janet Currie
Department of Economics
Center for Health and Wellbeing
185A Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
Tel: 609-258-7393
E-Mail: jcurrie@princeton.edu
M1  - published as Jay Bhattacharya, Janet Currie. "Youths at Nutrition Risk: Malnourished or Misnourished?," in Jonathan Gruber, editor, "Risky Behavior among Youths: An Economic Analysis" University of Chicago Press (2001)

AB  - We use data from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to examine the prevalence and determinants of poor nutritional outcomes among American youths.  One strength of our analysis is that we focus on an array of nutritional outcomes, and we find in fact that the determinants of these outcomes vary considerably form outcome to outcome.  We interpret our results using a model in which investments in health capital are affected by both resource constraints and a human capital production function that summarizes available nutrition information.  We find that although many youths suffer from nutrient deficiencies, these conditions are not generally sensitive to measures of resource constraints, and hence are unlikely to be due solely to a shortage of food.  Conversely, we find that our proxies for information matter.  Our results suggest that broad-based policies designed to alter the composition of the diet may hold the greatest promise for addressing the nutritional problems of American youths.
ER  -