Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item Impact of weight classifications on weight loss behavior: a regression discontinuity design(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2020) Worley, Ronald Wayne, III (Trey); Co-Chairs, Graduate Committee: Andrew Hill and Mariana CarreraAround 70% of US adults are overweight or obese, conditions strongly associated with medical issues and lower worker productivity. Efforts to address this issue have largely failed to instill long-term healthy living habits in individuals, and a better understanding of how individuals respond to these weight classifications may aid in creating effective interventions. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, I exploit the quasi-random assignment of weight classifications through the body mass index in a regression discontinuity design (RD) to analyze the impacts of overweight and obese assignments on weight change behavior and attempts to lose weight. My results suggest that individuals do not respond to these classifications by altering their weight change behavior or their efforts to lose weight. Limitations to my study make it uncertain whether this is the true relationship between weight classifications and weight-related behaviors. However, these findings align with previous research utilizing similar natural experiments. Future studies could exploit additional sources of variation in weight information, utilize different techniques, and explore alternative samples to contribute to the small, yet growing, literature on this topic.Item Exposure to terrorism and birthweight outcomes in Nigeria(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2018) Matonte, James Philip; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Brock SmithUsing readily available vitality and GPS data from the Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey, in conjunction with terrorism data from the open sourced Global Terrorism Database, I estimate the effect of in-utero exposure to terrorism within three kilometers of individuals in Nigeria on the likelihood of an infant to be born low-birthweight. Previous economic studies have explored the similar impacts to birthweight from arguably exogenous violent shocks to fetuses in-utero, however, no previous study has yet performed such an analysis of in-utero violence exposure within such a defined geographic area. I claim that previous studies' inability to perform their analysis on a smaller geographic scale has likely underestimated the effects of in-utero violence exposure. Additionally, I exploit detailed information on each terrorism event to address varying degrees of violence severity. I find that exposure to a Boko Haram civilian targeted terrorism related fatality, anywhere within Nigeria and within three kilometers of an individual, as well as within the first trimester of pregnancy, is associated with an approximate 3.2 percentage point increase in the likelihood that a child is born less than or equal to 2500 grams. There is also evidence to suggest that exposure to terrorist events greater than three kilometers away and outside of the first trimester increase the likelihood of an infant being born low birthweight as well.