107 © 2020 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. SOCIOECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT AND OBESITY ON THE US WEST AND EAST COASTS Bahram Adrangi 1+ Athena Hoppe 2 Kambiz Raffiee 3 1 W.E. Nelson Professor of Financial Economics Pamplin School of Business Administration University of Portland, USA. 2 Pamplin School of Business Administration University of Portland, USA. 3 College of Business Administration Foundation Professor of Economics College of Business, University of Nevada, USA. (+ Corresponding author) ABSTRACT Article History Received: 22 July 2020 Revised: 25 August 2020 Accepted: 17 September 2020 Published: 1 October 2020 Keywords Obesity Socioeconomics Obesity Multivariate regression model. JEL Classification: I12; I14; I18. The objective of this paper is to examine the association between obesity in the US West and East Coasts and access to grocery stores, fast food, convenience stores, recreational facilities, as well as the medium household income. A multivariate regression model based on aggregate county level observations for the West and the East Coasts based on the data from the US Department of Agriculture is estimated. Empirical results show that there is a positive association between obesity and convenience stores per county, while the rest of the variables showed negative association in the regression model. The elasticity between medium household income and obesity is the largest in magnitude for both geographic areas. These findings suggest policy recommendations for the short- and long-run that may be deployed to combat the obesity epidemic. Contribution/Originality: This study contributes to the existing literature on obesity by focusing on the socioeconomic aspects rather than traditional clinical aspects of obesity. An empirical result of the econometric model shows that association between obesity and income, availability of grocery stores, fast food, and recreational facilities is negative. The elasticity between medium household income and obesity is the largest in magnitude for both West and East coasts of the US. These findings suggest policy recommendations for the short- and long-run that may be deployed to combat the obesity epidemic. 1. INTRODUCTION According to the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) obesity is a leading cause of death in the United States, along with being a major risk factor for heart disease, depression, diabetes, cancer, and generally reduced lifespans 1 . Obesity is defined by using Body Mass Index or BMI to measure weight relative to height. Overweight is designated as having a BMI between 25-30, whereas “obese” is defined by BMIs at 30 kg/m2 or above 2 . BMIs generally correlate to levels of excess body fat, but there can be variation depending on muscle mass. BMI is a 1 https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/defining.html 2 https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-definition/ Journal of Social Economics Research 2020 Vol. 7, No. 2 pp. 107-117. ISSN(e): 2312-6264 ISSN(p): 2312-6329 DOI: 10.18488/journal.35.2020.72.107.117 © 2020 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved.