Principles of Obesity Economics with Professor Kevin Frick

hi I'm Kevin Frick a health Economist and professor of Health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Health economists are interested in looking at questions like what incentives people respond to and what constraints people face incentives can include things like relative prices what happens if the price of fresh produce goes up and the price of sugar sweetened beverages doesn't constraints can include things like the time that it takes to fix a fresh vegetable from scratch as opposed to the time to just reheat a prepared food item these are just two types of variations in time costs and money costs some economists say that people are exactly the weight that they choose to be in other words given the combination of information budget preferences and other constraints individuals face each person makes choices that lead to the weight that the person is given the rise and the prevalence of over weight obesity and even morbid obesity in the United States the rise in complications like type 2 diabetes and the rise in Associated health care costs of managing the conditions that come along with these complications we must strategize whether and how most efficiently to address the challenges this presents lectures are based on a one credit course offered online each summer at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health entitled obesity economics I want to emphasize that economists are interested in the producers as well as consumers and government's role in decisions that lead to the weight that people live at producers play an important role in the economic system of decisions that individuals face and can't be overlooked as we think about people's decisions that lead to the weight they are and policies that might change those decisions as this class moves on I hope that you gain an appreciation for the incentive that people face and how people respond to incentives rather than doing the right thing just because it is the right thing the next time that your employer or the government decides to change a policy that might change the weight that people live at you can think through whether the incentives match with that suggested policy change I look forward to discussing this issue with you during the class