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In Poorer Countries, Obesity Can Signal Financial Security



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In the world’s wealthiest countries, the richer people are, the thinner they tend to be.But in Uganda, one of the poorest nations, where nearly half the population eats fewer calories than they need each day, excess fat is often a sign of wealth and can help get a bank loan, according to a forthcoming article in The American Economic Review.It’s not surprising that in places where food is scarce, obesity serves as a significant marker of wealth.But what the new study points out is that in poor countries, information is also scarce. And in those situations, loan officers use whatever bits of evidence they can find to help make critical economic decisions.“Given the scarcity of readily available hard information in poor countries, wealth signals, including obesity, play a crucial role in economic interactions where individuals seek to evaluate someone’s wealth,” said Elisa Macchi, an assistant professor of economics at Brown University.As part of her research, Ms. Macchi conducted tests with 238 loan officers at 146 financial institutions in the capital city of Kampala. She asked them to review applications from fictionalized potential borrowers whose accompanying photographs were manipulated so they appeared …

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