The effect of height on earnings: Is stature just a proxy for cognitive and non-cognitive skills?

• Published in: Economics and human biology Vol. 43; p. 101046
• Main Authors: Bossavie, Laurent, Alderman, Harold, Giles, John, Mete, Cem
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.12.2021
• Subjects: Body Height; Cognition; Humans; Income; Labor earnings; Nutrition; Skills and education; J10; J70; Nutrition; Labor earnings; Skills and education
• ISSN: 1570-677X; 1873-6130
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101046

•The attenuation in the contribution of height to earnings is modest once other dimensions of human capital are controlled for.•This result is robust to treating height as endogenous and controlling for selection into self-employment and wage employment.•Height is associated with earnings only when an individual is taller than the median height.•The study suggests that height provides independent information on labor productivity for individuals taller than average. While taller workers are regularly observed to earn more, there is debate concerning the independent contribution of stature to labor earnings. This study investigates the degree to which the association of height and earnings in Pakistan is independent of other cognitive and socio-emotional skills. Next, the relationship between height and earnings is explored when measures of cognitive ability and an index of socio-emotional capacity are included separately. The paper finds only a modest attenuation in the contribution of height to earnings after controlling for additional dimensions of human capital, suggesting that height provides independent information on labor productivity. This result is robust to treating height as endogenous. The paper also examines non-linearities in the relationship between height and earnings. In contrast to results from relatively few other contributions to research on this non-linear relationship, height is associated with earnings only when an individual is taller than the median height. This lends some support to the role of status and confidence in the yet unresolved question as to the relative contribution of direct and indirect influence of height on earnings.