American Economic Journal: Economic Policy · 2022 · Jan Marcus、Thomas Siedler、Nicolas R. Ziebarth
中文摘要
儿童肥胖是21世纪最严重的公共健康挑战之一。尽管小规模实验能在短期内改变成年人的行为，但我们对大规模政策的有效性或长期影响知之甚少。为促使小学生养成锻炼的长期习惯，德国萨克森州于2009年向所有33,000名三年级学生发放了体育俱乐部会员代金券。2018年，我们开展了一项基于登记的调查以评估该政策。即使十年之后，处理组对该代金券项目的知晓度依然统计显著更高。我们还发现青少年收到并兑换了代金券。然而，我们未发现对体育俱乐部会员资格、体育活动、超重或运动技能有显著的短期或长期效应。显然，面向儿童的会员代金券并非足够有力的政策工具，不足以克服经常锻炼的障碍。(JEL H75, I12, I18, I21, I28, J13, Z21)
Abstract
Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the twenty-first century. While small-scale experiments change behaviors among adults in the short run, we know little about the effectiveness of large-scale policies or the longer-run impacts. To nudge primary school children into a long-term habit of exercising, the German state of Saxony distributed sports club membership vouchers among all 33,000 third graders in 2009. In 2018, we carried out a register-based survey to evaluate the policy. Even after a decade, awareness of the voucher program was significantly higher in the treatment group. We also find that youth received and redeemed the vouchers. However, we do not find significant short- or long-term effects on sports club membership, physical activity, overweightness, or motor skills. Apparently, membership vouchers for children are not a strong enough policy tool to overcome barriers to exercise regularly. (JEL H75, I12, I18, I21, I28, J13, Z21)