BMI, Food Purchase, and Promotional Sensitivity

In this paper, we examine the relationship between obesity and sensitivity to in-store promotions using a dataset that links individual-level food purchases, store-level price and promotion exposures, and individual-level obesity status. We estimate a structural model of category attention and product purchase on 13 vice and 14 virtue product categories, and find that lower income obese individuals are more promotion-sensitive than lower income non-obese individuals. This difference across obesity status is especially strong in vice food categories. Our findings are consistent with behavorial theories of ego-depletion and self-regulation, and provide field support to laboratory work that documents a relationship between obesity, sensitivity to food cues, and impulsive purchase.

Keywords: obesity, self-control, scanner data, marketing and health

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Bao, Ying and Osborne, Matthew and Wang, Emily Yucai and Jaenicke, Edward C., BMI, Food Purchase, and Promotional Sensitivity (June 22, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3260896 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3260896