TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Green, Colin P.
AU  - Heywood, John S.
AU  - Paniagua, Maria Navarro
        TI  - This Girl Can? The Effect of Promoting Physical Activity on Health Outcomes
        PY  - 2026/Mar/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18472
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp18472
        AB  - Physical activity likely improves health. Yet, even as health outcomes are positively associated with physical activity, confounding bias exists. We examine a large-scale government campaign to encourage physical activity among women in the United Kingdom as a source of an exogenous increase. Our difference-in-differences estimates confirm a large increase in activity associated with the campaign. We use this as the basis of IV estimation indicating that physical activity leads to a reduction in BMI and a lower chance of obesity, but we find no change in other health conditions over our four-year window. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.
        KW  - public service campaign
KW  - physical activity
KW  - women’s health
        ER  -