A thesis prepared by a University of Iceland (HÍ) student has found that unemployed women in Iceland lost weight in the wake of the 2008 economic collapse.
Síf Jónsdóttir, who wrote the thesis along with HÍ professor of economics, Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdóttir, found that both men and women who had lost their jobs during the collapse gained less weight than those who remained employed, RÚV reports. The idea for the thesis came about following a lecture on the positive sides of an economic collapse.
“I found it really interesting that a crisis could lead to something good. So I talked with Tinna and she pointed me to this data,” said Sif. “There have been many studies on the labour market and obesity and on the impact of obesity on employment, so it was interesting to examine the opposite relationship.”
Sif’s results disproved the assumption that the unemployed generally gain weight. She says that it is unclear what the explanation is for weight loss among the unemployed and gain among the employed.
Maybe the cost of groceries?
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