Stature and life-time labor market outcomes: Accounting for unobserved differences

Bockerman, Petri and Vainiomäki, Jari (2012): Stature and life-time labor market outcomes: Accounting for unobserved differences.

Abstract

We use twin data matched to register-based individual information on earnings and employment to examine the effect of height on life-time labor market outcomes. The use of twin data allows us to remove otherwise unobserved ability and other differences. The twin pair difference estimates from instrumental variables estimation for genetically identical twins reveal a significant height-wage premium for women but not for men. This result implies that cognitive ability explains the effect of height on life-time earnings for men. Additional findings using capital income as the outcome variable suggest that discrimination against short persons may play a role for women.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Height; Weight; BMI; Height premium; Earnings; Employment
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs > J31 - Wage Level and Structure ; Wage Differentials; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor > J23 - Labor Demand; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I10 - General

References

Barrick, M. R., Mount, M. K., 1991. The big five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44, 1-26.

Behrman, J.R., Rosenzweig, M.R., 2001. The reteurns to increasing body weight. PIER Working Paper 01-052. Penn Institute for Economic Research.

Behrman, J.R., Rosenzweig, M.R., 2004. Returns to birthweight. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 86, 586-601.

Berggren, N., Jordahl, H., Poutvaara, P., 2010. The looks of a winner: Beauty and electoral success. Journal of Public Economics, 94, 8-15.

Björklund, A., Jäntti, M., 2012. How important is family background for labour-economic outcomes? Labour Economics, 19, 465-474.

Black, S.E., Devereux, P.J., Salvanes, K.G., 2005. From the cradle to the labor market? The effect of birth weight on adult outcomes. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122, 409-439.

Bound, J., Solon, G., 1999. Double trouble: On the value of twins-based estimation of the return to schooling. Economics of Education Review, 18, 169-182.

Burkhauser, R.V., Cawley, J., 2008. Beyond BMI: The value of more accurate measures of fatness and obesity in social science research. Journal of Health Economics, 27, 519-529.

Böckerman, P., Johansson, E., Kiiskinen, U., Heliövaara, M., 2010. The relationship between physical work and the height premium: Finnish evidence. Economics and Human Biology, 8, 414-420.

Case, A., Fertig, A., Paxson, C., 2005. The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance. Journal of Health Economics, 24, 365-389.

Case, A., Paxson, C., 2008. Stature and status: Height, ability, and labor market outcomes. Journal of Political Economy, 116, 499-532.

Cinnirella, F., Winter, J., 2009. Size matters! Body height and labor market discrimination: A cross-European analysis. CESifo Working Paper No. 2733.

Dahl, M., DeLeire, T., Schwabish, J.A., 2011. Estimates of year-to-year volatility in earnings and in household incomes from administrative, survey, and matched data. Journal of Human Resources, 21, 750-774.

van Dongen, J., Slagboom, P.E., Draisma, H.H., Martin, N.G., Boomsma, D.I., 2012. The continuing value of twin studies in the omics era. Nature Reviews Genetics, 13, 640-653.

Gorodnichenko, Y., Mendoza, E.G., Tesar, L.L., 2012. The Finnish Great Depression: From Russia with love. The American Economic Review, 102, 1619-1643.

Guéguen, N., 2012. Hair color and wages: Waitresses with blond hair have more fun. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 41, 370-372.

Hamermesh, D., Biddle, J., 1994. Beauty and the labor market. The American Economic Review, 84, 1174-1194.

Heineck, G., 2005. Up in the skies? The relationship between body height and earnings in Germany. Labour: Review of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations, 19, 469-489.

Hübler, O., 2009. The nonlinear link between height and wages in Germany, 1985-2004. Economics and Human Biology, 7, 191-199.

Hyytinen, A., Ilmakunnas, P., Toivanen, O., 2012. The return-to-entrepreneurship puzzle. Labour Economics, Forthcoming.

Johansson, E., Böckerman, P., Kiiskinen, U. & Heliövaara, M., 2009. Obesity and labour market success in Finland: The difference between having a high BMI and being fat. Economics and Human Biology, 7, 36-45.

Judge, T.A., Cable, D.M., 2004. The effect of physical height on workplace success and income: Preliminary test of a theoretical model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 428-441.

Kaprio, J., Artimo, M., Sarna, S., Rantasalo, I., 1979. The Finnish twin registry: Baseline characteristics. Section I: Materials methods, representativeness and results for variables special to twin studies. Department of Public Health, Publications, M(47).

Kaprio, J., Koskenvuo, M., 2002. Genetic and environmental factors in complex diseases: The older Finnish Twin Cohort. Twin research, 5, 358-365.

Korkeila, M., Kaprio, J., Rissanen, A., Koskenvuo, M., Sörensen, T.I., 1998. Predictors of major weight gain in adult Finns: Stress, life satisfaction and personality traits. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders, 22, 949-57.

Kortt, M., Leigh, A., 2010. Does size matter in Australia? Economic Record, 86, 71-83.

Krashinsky, H.A., 2004. Do marital status and computer usage really change the wage structure? Journal of Human Resources, 39, 774-791.

Lindqvist, E., 2012. Height and leadership. The Review of Economics and Statistics, Forthcoming.

Lorr, M., Youniss, R. P., Stefic, E. C., 1991. An inventory of social skills. Journal of Personality Assessment, 57, 506-520.

Lundborg, P., Nystedt, P., Rooth, D.-O., 2009. The height premium in earnings: The role of physical capacity and cognitive and non-cognitive skills. IZA Discussion Paper No. 4266.

McClearn, G.E., Johansson, B. Berg, S., Pedersen, N.L., Ahern, F., Petrill, S.A., Plomin, R., 2007. Substantial genetic influence on cognitive abilities in twins 80 or more years old. Science, 276, 1560-1563.

McCrae, R.R., Costa Jr., P. T., Ostendorf, F., Angleitner, A., Hřebíčková, M., Avia, M. D., Sanz, J., Sánchez-Bernardos, M. L., Kusdil, M. E.; Woodfield, R., Saunders, P, R., Smith, P. B., 2000. Nature over nurture: Temperament, personality, and life span development. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 173-186.

Neal, D. A., Johnson, W. R., 1996. The role of premarket factors in black-white wage differences. Journal of Political Economy, 104, 896-895.

Persico, N., Postlewaite, A., Silverman, D., 2004. The effect of adolescent experience on labor market outcomes: The case of height. Journal of Political Economy, 112, 1019-1053.

Plomin, R., DeFries, J.C. 1998. The genetics of cognitive abilities and disabilities. Scientific American, 278, May, 62-69.

Ridder, G., Moffitt, R., 2007. The econometrics of data combination. In Handbook of Econometrics, vol. 6B (eds J. J. Heckman and E. E. Leamer), pp. 5469-5547. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Sargent, J. D., Blanchflower, D. G., 1994. Obesity and stature in adolescence and earnings in young adulthood – analysis of a British birth cohort. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 148, 681-687.

Sarlio-Lähteenkorva, S., Silventoinen, K., Lahelma, E., 2004. Relative weight and income at different levels of socioeconomic status. American Journal of Public Health, 94, 468-472.

Schlam, T.R., Wilson, N.L., Shoda, Y., Mischel, W., Ayduk, O., 2012. Preschoolers’ delay of gratification predicts their body mass 30 years later. The Journal of Pediatrics, Forthcoming.

Schultz, T.P., 2002. Wage gains associated with height as a form of health human capital. The American Economic Review, 92, 349-353.

Silventoinen, K., Kaprio, J., Lahelma, E., 2000. Genetic and environmental contributions to the association between body height and educational attainment: A study of adult Finnish twins. Behavior Genetics, 30, 477-485.

Silventoinen, K., Kaprio, J., Lahelma, E., Viken, R.J., Rose, R.J., 2001. Sex differences in the genetic and environmental factors contributing to body-height. Twin Research, 4, 25-29.

Silventoinen, K., Krueger, B., Bouchard Jr., T.J., Kaprio, J., McGue, M., 2004. Heritability of body height and educational attainment in an international context: Comparison of adult twins in Minnesota and Finland. American Journal of Human Biology, 16, 544-555.

Smith, P. K., Bogin, B., Bishai, D., 2005. Are time preference and body mass index associated? Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Economics and Human Biology, 3, 259-270.

Staiger, D., Stock, J. H., 1997. Instrumental variable regression with weak instruments. Econometrica, 65, 557-86.

Yusuf, S., Hawken, S., Ounpuu, S., Bautista, L., Franzosi, M.G., Commerford, P., Lang, C.C., Rumboldt, Z., Onen, C.L., Lisheng, L., Tanomsup, S., Wangai, P., Razak, F., Sharma, A.M., Anand, S.S., 2005. Obesity and the risk of myocardial infarction in 27000 participants from 52 countries: A case-control study. Lancet, 366, 1640-1649.

Vogl, T., 2012. Height, skills, and labor market outcomes in Mexico. NBER Working Paper No. 18318.

Wada, R., Tekin, E., 2010. Body composition and wages. Economics and Human Biology, 8, 242-254.