The Economics of Obesity: Research and Policy Implications from a Canada-U.S. Comparison M. Christopher Auld Department of Economics University of Calgary auld@ucalgary.ca Lisa M. Powell Institute for He alth Research and Policy and Department of Economics University of Illinois at Chicago powelll@uic.edu November 2005 Draft Powell gratefully acknowledges research support from the Robert Wood Johns on Foundation through ImpacTeen. This research was undertaken while Auld was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. We thank Yanjun Bao for her excellent research assistance.