Assessing the impact of obesity on labor market outcomes

Maarten Lindeboom (), Petter Lundborg and Bas van der Klaauw

Economics & Human Biology, 2010, vol. 8, issue 3, 309-319

Abstract: We study the effect of obesity on employment, using rich data from the British National Child Development Study (NCDS). The results show a significant negative association between obesity and employment even after controlling for a rich set of demographic, socioeconomic, environmental and behavioral variables. In order to account for the endogeneity of obesity, we use and assess instruments introduced by Cawley (2004); the obesity status of biological relatives. Using parental obesity as an instrument, we show that the association between obesity and employment is no longer significant. Similar results are obtained in a model of first differences. We provide a number of different checks on the instruments, by exploiting the richness of the NCDS data. The results show mixed evidence regarding the validity of the instruments.

Keywords: Obesity; Employment; Instruments; Endogeneity; Panel; data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (67)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:8:y:2010:i:3:p:309-319

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