Purpose

Episodes of compulsive eating may lead to addiction. Changing relative prices does not always work for many food addicts turned overweight or obese individuals. This paper points to when such situations may arise and how they can be remedied.

Design/methodology/approach

We modify the standard neoclassical economics model assumption of indifference curves being convex to the origin. It becomes violated in situations when compulsive eaters become food addicts. As a result of that, the assumption of the concave (quasi-concave) utility function is violated too. We also introduce the possibility that compulsive eaters may have stable but nonconstant preferences.

Findings

Most important finding of our model is that a smooth dynamic path to addiction, caused by habit, disappears. Hence, the ability for smooth adjustment to relative price changes due to policies targeting obesity may not be applicable for a compulsive addict. We postulate the existence of thresholds past in which irreversible harm to addicted overeaters may occur. Reaching such states implies that no economic tools at our disposal could reverse the harm, which, in turn, deem that many policies directed at altering relative prices are ineffective in correcting overeating addiction and its consequences.

Social implications

Even if we believe in consumer sovereignty, it is possible to shape consumer behavior via policy actions, including the behavior of extremum seekers turned addicts. The public policy of obesity should consider, in this case, its social cost.

Originality/value

No prior research has considered food addiction in light of compulsive eating caused by extremum-seeking behavior. Addiction correcting food policies always relied on either rational or myopic addiction models.

中文翻译：

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非凸面的消费者偏好，强迫性进食和食物成瘾

目的

强迫性进食可能会导致成瘾。改变相对价格并不总是适用于许多变得超重或肥胖的食物成瘾者。本文指出了何时可能出现这种情况以及如何纠正它们。

设计/方法/方法

我们修改了无差异曲线向原点凸出的标准新古典经济学模型假设。当强迫性进食者成为食物成瘾者时，这种情况就被侵犯了。结果，也违反了凹（准凹）效用函数的假设。我们还介绍了强迫性进食者可能有稳定但非恒定偏好的可能性。

发现

我们模型最重要的发现是，由习惯引起的成瘾的平滑动态路径消失了。因此，由于针对肥胖症的政策而导致的相对价格变化的平稳调整能力可能不适用于强迫性吸毒者。我们假设存在阈值，超过该阈值可能会对上瘾的饮食过量者产生不可逆的伤害。达到这样的状态意味着没有任何可利用的经济手段可以扭转这一危害，而这反过来又认为，许多旨在改变相对价格的政策在纠正暴饮暴食及其后果方面是无效的。

社会影响

即使我们相信消费者拥有主权，也有可能通过政策行动来塑造消费者的行为，包括寻求极端成瘾者的行为。在这种情况下，肥胖症的公共政策应考虑其社会成本。

创意/价值

鉴于极度寻求行为导致的强迫性进食，以前的研究都没有考虑过食物成瘾。成瘾纠正食品政策始终依赖于理性或近视成瘾模型。