Knabe, Schöb, and Weimann (2017) on the Well-Being of Workfare Participants

Andreas Knabe, Ronnie Schöb, and Joachim Weimann, “The Subjective Well-Being of Workfare Participants: Insights from a Day Reconstruction Survey.” Applied Economics 49(13), 2017.

• Workfare involves connecting unemployment benefits to participation in (public) employment.

• Unemployment is very bad for subjective well-being; the authors want to know if workfare is, too.

• The sample (usable n=1055) is drawn from German labor force participants, some working full-time (n=366), and some in long-term unemployment. Of the long-term unemployed, some (n=341) were participating in low-paid workfare jobs.

• The authors find through interviews (conducted in 2008) using the Day Reconstruction Method that self-reported life satisfaction of the workfare population is better than that of unemployed people, but not as high as that of employed people. This life-satisfaction boost is enjoyed both by those who were coerced into workfare jobs by the threat of losing benefits and those who voluntarily entered the workfare scheme.

• The affect (day-to-day happiness) of those on workfare is more positive than that of either the unemployed or the employed: workfare participants enjoy their hours working more than "regular" employees do.

Silver et al. (2017) on the Berkeley Soda Tax

Lynn D. Silver, Shu Wen Ng, Suzanne Ryan-Ibarra, et al., “Changes in prices, sales, consumer spending, and beverage consumption one year after a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages in Berkeley, California, US: A before-and-after study.” PLoS Med 14(4), April 18, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002283.

• Berkeley imposed a 1-cent per ounce tax for sugar-sweetened beverages starting in January, 2015; even before the tax, Berkeley per-capita soda consumption was quite low by US standards. 

• The study compares the before-and-after situation in Berkeley stores with comparable stores outside of Berkeley. 

• The tax led to higher soda prices in chain-stores, and to a significant fall in soda purchases, as well as a rise in water purchases. Consumers don’t seem to spend more on beverages after the tax is imposed. The overall effect on calories consumed is uncertain.

Popkin and Hawkes (2016) on Sweetening of Diets

Barry M. Popkin and Corinna Hawkes, “Sweetening of the Global Diet, Particularly Beverages: Patterns, Trends, and Policy Responses.” The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology 4(2): 174–186, February 2016.

• Added caloric sweeteners in beverages seem to involve special health risks, such as diabetes. (The jury is still out on low-calorie sweeteners and 100% fruit juices.) Chile, Mexico, and the US lead the league table.

• Most food and most beverage calories consumed in the US come from items with added sweeteners. In recent years, the US has seen some movement away from beverages with added caloric sweeteners. 
 
• As incomes rise, much of the rest of the world is adopting US-style added-caloric-sweetener habits. 

• Early studies of sweet taxes suggest that they do dissuade consumption, and possibly even lead to changes in the composition of food items. 

• Sustained public information campaigns employing multiple channels of dissemination can dissuade unhealthy behaviors. The precise right approach (or approaches) to label information and warnings remains unresolved.

• Many jurisdictions have imposed restrictions on sugar marketing and in-school availability, as well as promoting public awareness and requiring nutritional information and warnings on packaging.

Downs and Loewenstein (2011) on Obesity

Julie S. Downs and George Loewenstein, “Behavioral Economics and Obesity.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Obesity, John Cawley, editor, 2011.

• The rise in obesity is hard to explain via rational choice: think of the huge expenditures on failed diets and exercise programs, for instance. “Informational” interventions, such as better calorie information, might be fairly limited in terms of combatting obesity, then. 

• One cannot take a zero tolerance approach towards food; also, people have a habit of understating their consumption, or simply forgetting about snacks. 

• It doesn’t seem as if an increase in discount rates spurred the obesity rise, because discount rates have not risen, even though obesity is concentrated among those with higher discount rates. And present bias seems more applicable to food than it does to other types of decisions. 

• The future health costs of a bad diet are intangible, and for a single meal, negligible. Any one dietary indiscretion is (metaphorically) peanuts, but routinely neglecting these indiscretions – the “peanuts effect” – can lead to obesity and serious harm. 

• Field studies don’t show much improvement in calorie reduction from posting calorie counts. A decrease in consumption in one meal can be offset by later meals. 

• The rise in obesity tracks the rise in restaurant serving sizes fairly closely.

Schall, Doll, and Mohnen (2017) on Useless Warnings

Dominik L. Schall, Dominik Doll, and Alwine Mohnen, “Caution! Warnings as a Useless Countermeasure to Reduce Overconfidence? An Experimental Evaluation in Light of Enhanced and Dynamic Warning Designs.” Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 30(2): 347-358, April 2017.

• Two experiments look at over-precision in guessing the answers to factual questions. People tend to choose 90% confidence intervals that are much, much too narrow: people are overly optimistic about their precision. 

• Warning people to be wary of over-precision in itself (even when the warning takes a fairly fancy form) seems useless, but… 

• …a dynamic (pop-up) warning significantly reduces over-precision. Effective warning content and the dynamic element seem to both be required. 

• Effective warning content is rather involved: it consists of a highlighted signal word ("Caution"); an explanation of the hazard (overconfidence); the consequence of the hazard (the truth lying outside of the chosen confidence interval excessively); and instructions (widen your intervals) about how to overcome the hazard.