The Economics Show

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

July 10, 2026·29 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

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, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.Further reading: The economics of women’s weightDoes the weight-loss revolution show up in the data?The challenges of a weight-loss economyPresented 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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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