We document considerable within-person (over time) variation in diet quality that is not fully explained by responses to fluctuations in the economic environment. We propose a two-selves model that provides a structural interpretation to this variation, in which food choices are a compromise between a healthy and an unhealthy self, each with well-behaved preferences. We show that the data are consistent with this model using revealed preference methods. The extent of self-control problems is higher among younger and lower income consumers, though this is overstated if we do not control for responses to fluctuations in the economic environment. Our results are intuitively related to stated attitudes on self-control.
Authors
Rachel Griffith
Rachel is Research Director and Professor at the University of Manchester. She was made a Dame for services to economic policy and education in 2021.
Martin O'Connell
Martin, previously Deputy Research Director, is a Research Fellow at IFS and Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin.
Kate Smith
Kate is an IFS Research Fellow and an Assistant Professor at LSE, interested in public finance, industrial organisation and applied microeconomics.
Laurens Cherchye
Laurens is a Research Associate of the IFS and a Professor in the Department of Economics, KU Leuven.
Bram De Rock
Bram is a Research Associate of the IFS, a Professor of Economics at ULB and a Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at KU Leuven.
Frederic Vermeulen
Frederic is a Research Associate of the IFS, a Professor of Economics at the University of Leuven and a Research Fellow at the CEPR.
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