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Title: Direct and Indirect Effects of Body Weight on Adult Wages
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Han, Euna Norton, Edward C. Powell, Lisa M. |
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Direct and Indirect Effects of Body Weight on Adult Wages Economics and Human Biology 9,4 (December 2011): 381-392. Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X11000803 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Elsevier Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Education; Obesity; Occupational Choice; Wages Previous estimates of the association between body weight and wages in the literature have been conditional on education and occupation. In addition to the effect of current body weight status (body mass index (BMI) or obesity) on wages, this paper examines the indirect effect of body weight status in the late-teenage years on wages operating through education and occupation choice. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 data, for women, we find that a one-unit increase in BMI is directly associated with 1.83% lower hourly wages whereas the indirect BMI wage penalty is not statistically significant. Neither a direct nor an indirect BMI wage penalty is found for men. However, results based on clinical weight classification reveal that the indirect wage penalty occurs to a larger extent at the upper tail of the BMI distribution for both men and women via the pathways of education and occupation outcomes. Late-teen obesity is indirectly associated with 3.5% lower hourly wages for both women and men. These results are important because they imply that the total effect of obesity on wages is significantly larger than has been estimated in previous cross-sectional studies. |
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Bibliography Citation
Han, Euna, Edward C. Norton and Lisa M. Powell. "Direct and Indirect Effects of Body Weight on Adult Wages." Economics and Human Biology 9,4 (December 2011): 381-392.
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