TELEVISION VIEWING, FAST-FOOD CONSUMPTION, AND CHILDREN’S OBESITY HUNG-HAO CHANG and RODOLFO M. NAYGA, JR.* Childhood obesity is rising in Taiwan and is becoming a major public health issue. This article examines the effect of children’s TV viewing and fast-food consumption on childhood obesity. Using a nationwide survey data in Taiwan and a two-step esti- mation procedure, our results show that TV viewing hours and fast-food consumption are correlated. After controlling for the endogeneity, we find these two activities pos- itively contribute to children’s body weight and the increased risk of being overweight. Results suggest that public health/childhood obesity programs should educate parents of the critical influence of TV viewing and fast-food consumption on childhood obe- sity. The government can also encourage the fast-food industry to develop and sell healthier foods for children and provide point of sale nutritional information of these products.(JEL I12, I18) I. INTRODUCTION Childhood obesity is becoming widespread and growing problem in the world with signif- icant medical, psychological, and economic consequences. Much like the United States and other countries, Taiwan has experienced a substantial increase in the prevalence of child obesity over the past few decades. To date, one in every four children in Taiwan is now considered overweight (Taiwan Medical Association for the Study of Obesity, 2007). Consequently, the prevention of childhood obesity is now one of the primary policy objectives in Taiwan (Chu, 2005; Hsieh and FitzGerald, 2005). Child obesity is a major public health prob- lem with both individual and environmental causes. Among all the factors that may be related to changes in a child’s body weight, nutrition, and public health studies have high- lighted the importance of hours spent on tele- vision viewing and fast-food consumption (e.g., Gortmaker et al., 1996; Hager, 2006; Hsieh and FitzGerald, 2005; Hui et al., 2003). It has been reported that children spend more time watching TV than any other activ- ity. This is important since television has a powerful influence on the life of children (Strasburger, 1992). Time spent watching TV displaces more active pursuits such as out- door physical activities. Moreover, fast-food consumption among children appears to be negatively associated with the quality of diet in ways that plausibly could increase body weight. Therefore, the primary purpose of this article was to assess the effects of children’s hours spent on TV viewing and the amount of fast-food consumption on their body weight. We are first interested in the extent to which the factors, such as child’s character- istics and household features, determine *The authors are indebted to two anonymous reviewers for particularly thoughtful and meticulous com- ments. Hung-Hao Chang acknowledges partial funding support from the National Science Counsel of Taiwan under Grant No. 95-2415-H-002-041. The data used in the analysis are provided by the Bureau of Health Promo- tion, Department of Health, and NHRIT. The interpreta- tion and conclusions do not represent those of Department of Health and National Health Research Institute. The authors accept responsibility for any remaining errors or omissions. Chang: Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, National Taiwan University, No 1, Roosevelt Road Section 4, Taipei 106, Taiwan. Phone (8862) 3366-2656, Fax (8862) 2362-8496, E-mail hunghaochang@ntu.edu.tw Nayga: Professor and Tyson Chair in Food Policy Eco- nomics, Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701. Phone (479)-575-2258, Fax (479)-575-5306, E-mail rnayga@uark.edu ABBREVIATIONS BMI: Body Mass Index IV: Instrumental Variable NHIST: National Health Interview Survey at Taiwan NHRIT: National Health Research Institute of Taiwan OLS: Ordinary Least Squares Contemporary Economic Policy (ISSN 1074-3529) Vol. 27, No. 3, July 2009, 293–307 doi:10.1111/j.1465-7287.2009.00157.x Online Early publication April 16, 2009 Ó 2009 Western Economic Association International 293