Size Matters! Body Height and Labor Market Discrimination: A Cross-European Analysis

Francesco Cinnirella and Joachim Winter ()

No 2733, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: Taller workers earn on average higher salaries. Recent research has proposed cognitive abilities and social skills as explanations for the height-wage premium. Another possible mechanism, employer discrimination, has found little support. In this paper, we provide some evidence in favor of the discrimination hypothesis. Using a cross section of 13 countries, we show that there is a consistent height-wage premium across Europe and that it is largely due to occupational sorting. We show that height has a significant effect for the occupational sorting of employed workers but not for the self-employed. We interpret this result as evidence of employer discrimination in favor of taller workers. Our results are consistent with the theoretical predictions of recent models on statistical discrimination and employer learning.

Keywords: height; wage premium; discrimination; cognitive functions; occupational sorting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J31 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_2733

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