The Effect of Fast‐Food Availability on Obesity: An Analysis by Gender, Race, and Residential Location

This paper employs an identification strategy based on county‐level variation in the number of fast‐food restaurants to investigate the effect of fast‐food availability on weight outcomes by geographic location, gender, and race/ethnicity. The number of interstate exits in the county of residence is employed as an instrument for restaurant location. Using the 2004–2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and self‐collected data on the number of fast‐food restaurants, I find that availability does not affect weight outcomes in rural counties, but does tend to increase body mass index among females and non‐Whites in medium‐density counties. These results are robust to specification choices.