Income windfalls and overweight:evidence from lottery wins

We examine the impact of an income windfall (from lottery win) on an individual's overweight and Body Mass Index (BMI). We use longitudinal data from the United Kingdom, where a large proportion of the population plays the lottery, and retrieve income effect estimates using time and individual specific fixed effects alongside a set of relevant controls. Although our findings suggest any income windfall may lead to a contemporaneous increase in overweight we document evidence that a £1,000 win reduces the probability of overweight in the range by up to 3% points 12 months after the lottery win. Estimates are heterogeneous across working hours and educational attainment. A £1000 lottery win reduces the risk of overweight among low educated individuals by 4.5–5 percentual points (pp)12 months after the lottery win.