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A fresh look at the labor market height premium in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Frieder Kropfhäußer

    (Halle Institute for Economic Research)

Abstract

I use data from the German Socioeconomic Panel Study (SOEP) to analyze the relationship between height and wages in a sample of young German workers. My results show that the crude height wage premium documented in the literature is explained by unobserved heterogeneity on the sibling level. This contradicts the findings of a labor market height premium in Germany using OLS and Hausman-Taylor estimators as well as the Swedish finding of a height effect remaining after controlling for sibling fixed effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Frieder Kropfhäußer, 2016. "A fresh look at the labor market height premium in Germany," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(3), pages 1376-1383.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-16-00398
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    6. Petter Lundborg & Paul Nystedt & Dan-Olof Rooth, 2014. "Height and Earnings: The Role of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 49(1), pages 141-166.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Height; Wages; Labor markets; German Socioeconomic Panel;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

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