The Wage Effects of Social Norms: Evidence of Deviations from Peers’ Body-Mass in Europe

René Fahr ()

No 2323, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We investigate wage effects of deviations from peer group body mass index (BMI) to evaluate the influence of social norms on wages. Our approach allows for disentangling the influence of the social norm from any (anticipated) productivity effects associated with deviations from a clinically recommended BMI. Estimates of between effects models for 9 European countries for the years 1998-2001 suggest that the influence of the social norm varies considerably between countries and wage penalties are rather found for upward deviations from the norm and for men.

Keywords: social norms; discrimination; body-mass-index; cross-country evidence; wage effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 J30 J70 M51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2006-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-hea, nep-lab and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Wage Effects of Social Norms - Evidence of Deviations from Peers' Body Mass in Europe (2014)
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