No Country for Fat Men? Obesity, Earnings, Skills, and Health among 450,000 Swedish Men

Petter Lundborg, Paul Nystedt () and Dan-Olof Rooth
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Paul Nystedt: Linköping University

No 4775, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The negative association between obesity and labor market outcomes has been widely documented, yet little is known about the mechanisms through which the association arises. Using rich and unique data on 450,000 Swedish men enlisting for the military, we find that the crude obesity penalty in earnings, which amounts to about 18 percent, is linked to supply-side characteristics that are associated with both earnings and obesity. In particular, we show that the penalty reflects negative associations between obesity, on the one hand, and cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, and physical fitness, on the other. Our results suggest that employers use obesity as a marker for skill limitations in order to statistically discriminate.

Keywords: health; earnings; physical fitness; obesity; cognitive ability; non-cognitive ability; overweight (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 J10 J70 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2010-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hea, nep-lab and nep-neu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published - published as 'Body Size, Skills, and Income: Evidence From 150,000 Teenage Siblings' in: Demography, 2014, 51, 1573-1596

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