摘要
本論文探討下述可能影響瘦身的因子與瘦身對經濟層面影響的二子題： (1) 瘦身的決定因子：教育對瘦身的影響是否需要時間沉澱吸收？ 本論文以我國『國民健康訪問調查』(2001) 資料分析教育與有效瘦身之關聯性，並以univariate probit模型對男女老少族群分別估計。然而年輕人可能為外觀本身而追求瘦身，這可能考量婚姻或職業所需或由愛美天性使然，尤其是年輕女性可能主要為窈窕身材而追求瘦身，而中老年者則可能主要是因健康考量而產生對瘦身的需求，故教育對有效瘦身的影響可能因人生階段而異。本研究進一步以父母親之教育年數作為子女教育年數之工具變數，以檢定教育之內生性問題。我們的結果顯示教育對有效瘦身為正向影響，而女性的教育需要時間沉澱吸收，且教育對男性的影響程度大於女性。此外，內生性之檢定結果為教育與有效瘦身不存在內生性問題。 (2) 體重控制、肥胖與就業 已有多數文獻探討肥胖對就業的影響，卻鮮少討論體重控制與就業的關聯性。因此，本論文運用trivariate probit model來探討體重控制、肥胖與就業之關聯性。為解決可能的內生性問題，我們以父母親是否肥胖作為肥胖的工具變數，以不滿意自己的外表作為體重控制與否的工具變數，以處理內生性問題。我們的實證結果指出，控制體重控制下的肥胖與就業的關聯比沒有控制體重控制下負向效果相對較小。
並列摘要
Essay 1: By using the data of the 2001 National Health Interview Survey of Taiwan, this study investigates the empirical association between education and effective weight control. It uses a univariate probit model to assess the difference in this relationship for young and old cohorts. Our results indicate that education has positive influence on effective weight control, but women's education needs time precipitation absorption, and the influence of education on the decision of weight control for men is greater than that for women. It also attempts to use a bivariate probit model to assess the difference in the relationship, controlling for the potential endogeneity of overweight or education, by using genetic instrumental variables. It tests the hypothesis that overweight is exogenous and the hypothesis that education is exogenous in the equation of effective weight control,. Both hypotheses are supported. Essay 2: The economic effects of obesity on employment have received an increasing attention; nonetheless, none of the previous studies has taken the intention of weight control, which is often unobserved in many relevant data sets, into account. By using the data of the 2001 National Health Interview Survey of Taiwan, this study investigates whether the intention of weight control is a key factor for mitigating the punishment of obesity, in terms of smaller negative effect on employment, for young workers. It uses a trivariate probit model to assess the change in this relationship, controlling for the potential endogeneity of obesity, by using genetic instrumental variables, for young workers. It shows that the absolute value of negative marginal effect of obesity on employment is smaller for young workers who intend to do weight control to reduce weight than those who do not.