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This study documents prevalence rates, trends in, and determinants of body mass index (BMI), outcomes related to obesity, and proximate inputs into obesity such as caloric intake for panels of countries, categorized by geographical regions and levels of development for the time period 1980-2008. Our estimates inform the nature and scope of obesity on a global scale, and contribute toward an understanding of the drivers of the upward trend in obesity and toward identifying effective public policy responses. The cross-national trends, across countries spanning the spectrum of economic development and geographic regions, suggest that obesity is not a problem limited to the United States and other developed countries, but rather a global concern. With the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa and the group of low-income countries, average BMI levels for all other country groupings (based on geographic regions and level of economic development) had reached the overweight/pre-obese range by 2008. Concurrently, we also observe an increase in glucose levels. We further find that higher caloric intake globally over the past three decades may be a direct driving factor to the increase in BMI. Fixed effects regression analyses reveal that changes in real GDP per capita and labor force participation can partly explain the increase in BMI through their impact on caloric intake and physical inactivity. The commonality in the rising trends in BMI and obesity around the world is suggestive of common underlying causes, although substantial heterogeneity remains, as well as marked differences by gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the employment effects of mergers and acquisitions in the manufacturing, financial and service sectors of the US economy using annual time series data from 1978 to 2008. An empirical model is developed in which average wages per hour and the total value of mergers and acquisitions are the explanatory variables, with the number of people employed as the dependent variable. Before estimating the model, the time series properties of the data are diagnosed. The estimated results suggest that mergers and acquisitions have helped to increase employment in both the short-run as well as in the long-run in all three sectors of the economy. To ensure the robustness of the finding, a panel data set is created and the model is re-estimated using the fixed effects estimator. The finding is consistent with the sectoral results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to study the sectoral growth effects of both domestic and cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) sales in the United States for the period 1978-2006. M&A sales are broken down by sectors and in services- into financial and non-financial services M&A. Controlling for the initial level of output and investment, we find consistent across-sector evidence that M&A sales where the acquiring firm is of foreign origin lead to a slowdown of US economy. Additionally, we find that total M&A Granger cause real GDP growth, as well as services value added growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]