Body weight and wages: Evidence from Add Health Articles uri icon

publication date

  • January 2012

start page

  • 14

end page

  • 19

issue

  • 1

volume

  • 10

abstract

  • This note uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine the relationship between body weight and wages. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and individual fixed effects estimates provide evidence that overweight and obese white women are paid substantially less per hour than their slimmer counterparts. Two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimation confirms this relationship, suggesting that it is not driven by time-variant unobservables.

keywords

  • body weight obesity wages article body mass body weight ethnicity health survey human obesity salary sex difference united states adult african americans body mass index body weight european continental ancestry group female health knowledge; attitudes; practice hispanic americans humans longitudinal studies male nutrition surveys obesity risk factors salaries and fringe benefits united states young adult