Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0

Author-Name: Michele Baggio 
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, University of Connecticut, USA
Author-Workplace-Email: michele.baggio@uconn.edu

Author-Name: Alberto Chong
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, Georgia State University, USA
Author-Workplace-Email: achong6@gsu.edu

Title: Free Trade Agreements and World Obesity


Abstract: We study the causal link between trade openness via free trade agreements and obesity rates. We apply a difference-in-differences approach and exploit the year a country entered a free trade agreement with the United States during the period 1990 to 2016. We find statistically and economically significant results and show that our findings are robust to placebo tests, the use of synthetic control methods, and mechanically maximizing the sample. Additionally, we show that when using event studies the equal trends assumption holds.

Length: 31 pages 

Creation-Date: 2019-08

File-URL: https://icepp.gsu.edu/files/2019/08/paper1914.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf

Handle: RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper1914