The value of early physical maturity to young adult labor market outcomes

Chanita Holmes, Marlon R. Tracey and Ariel Belasen ()

Economics & Human Biology, 2020, vol. 37, issue C

Abstract: Puberty is the most important developmental milestone closely preceding a young adult’s labor market decisions. Thus, we examine the variation in the timing of physical maturity during adolescence to isolate its association with employment and hourly wages for US young adults. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health data, we find an early maturity premium of about 6% for females and 8% for males, but no employment advantage, in excess of gains from height and physical attractiveness. Cognitive and personality factors significantly explain this premium for both genders, but job attributes are also important for males.

Keywords: Physical maturity timing; Wages; Employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 J24 J31 J70 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X19302473
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:37:y:2020:i:c:s1570677x19302473

DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2020.100852

Access Statistics for this article

Economics & Human Biology is currently edited by J. Komlos, Inas R Kelly and Joerg Baten

More articles in Economics & Human Biology from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().