Does body weight affect wages? Evidence from Europe

We use data from the European Community Household Panel to investigate the impact of body weight on wages in nine European countries. When we pool the available data across countries and years, we find that a 10% increase in the average body mass index reduces the real earnings of males and females...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEconomics and human biology Vol. 5; no. 1; pp. 1 - 19
Main Authors Brunello, Giorgio, D'Hombres, Béatrice
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Netherlands Elsevier 01.03.2007
SeriesEconomics & Human Biology
Subjects
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Body Weight
Europe - epidemiology
Family Characteristics
Female
Health Status
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Prejudice
Regression Analysis
Salaries and Fringe Benefits - statistics & numerical data
Sex Factors
Smoking
Socioeconomic Factors
Europe
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Summary:We use data from the European Community Household Panel to investigate the impact of body weight on wages in nine European countries. When we pool the available data across countries and years, we find that a 10% increase in the average body mass index reduces the real earnings of males and females by 3.27% and 1.86%, respectively. Since European culture, society and labour market are heterogeneous, we estimate separate regressions for Northern and Southern Europe and find that the negative impact of the body mass index on earnings is larger--and statistically significant--in the latter area.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:1570-677X
1873-6130
DOI:10.1016/j.ehb.2006.11.002