The economics of weight loss, with Rebecca Diamond and Claer Barrett

In the western world, richer people tend to be thinner – especially women. But does wealth make people thin, or does being thin make them wealthy? And could the rise of weight-loss drugs such as Mounjaro and Wegovy give people – especially women – greater control over their economic outcomes? Soumaya speaks to Harvard professor Rebecca Diamond, the author of a new working paper that finds female users of GLP-1 drugs are more likely to find jobs and romantic partners. Soumaya also speaks to FT consumer editor (and GLP-1 user) Claer Barrett to discuss the drugs’ effects on consumer habits – and the economy at large.

Subscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple (podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-economics-sh…), Spotify (open.spotify.com/show/64rPqCkSSBkuSJpkMLRe9i?s…), Pocket Casts (pca.st/6ysdzw0j) or wherever you listen.

Further reading:
The economics of women’s weight (ft.com/content/a7a9bfbf-9743-473b-897f-6a91ad3…)
Does the weight-loss revolution show up in the data? (ft.com/content/0de44a07-528d-4515-9fb4-f6636d9…)
The challenges of a weight-loss economy (ft.com/content/2d73a61b-6328-41af-ad01-279a719…)

Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. Andrew Georgiades is the broadcast engineer. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Flo Phillips if the FT's head of audio.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com (ft.com/content/3ecc8859-7b3f-42fd-9ab0-d9806c6…)
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