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Obesity and labour market success in Finland: The difference between having a high BMI and being fat

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Author Info

  • Johansson, Edvard
  • Böckerman, Petri
  • Kiiskinen, Urpo
  • Heliövaara, Markku

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between obesity and labour market success in Finland, using various indicators of individual body composition along with body mass index (BMI). Weight, height, fat mass and waist circumference are measured by health professionals. We find that only waist circumference has a negative association with wages for women, whereas no obesity measure is significant in the linear wage models for men. However, all measures of obesity are negatively associated with women's employment probability and fat mass is negatively associated with men's employment probability. We also find that the use of categories for waist circumference and fat mass has a substantial influence on the results. For example, the category for high fat mass is associated with roughly 5.5% lower wages for men. All in all, the results indicate that in the absence of measures of body composition, there is a risk that labour market penalties associated with obesity are measured with bias.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Economics & Human Biology.

Volume (Year): 7 (2009)
Issue (Month): 1 (March)
Pages: 36-45

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Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:7:y:2009:i:1:p:36-45

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Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622964

Related research

Keywords: Obesity Body composition Fatness Wages Employment;

References

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  1. Hamermesh, Daniel S & Biddle, Jeff E, 1994. "Beauty and the Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1174-94, December.
  2. Burkhauser, Richard V. & Cawley, John, 2008. "Beyond BMI: The value of more accurate measures of fatness and obesity in social science research," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 519-529, March.
  3. Roy Wada & Erdal Tekin, 2007. "Body Composition and Wages," NBER Working Papers 13595, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  4. Franks, Peter & Gold, Marthe R. & Fiscella, Kevin, 2003. "Sociodemographics, self-rated health, and mortality in the US," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(12), pages 2505-2514, June.
  5. Cawley, John H. & Grabka, Markus Michael & Lillard, Dean R., 2005. "A Comparison of the Relationship between Obesity and Earnings in the U.S. and Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles, ZBW - German National Library of Economics.
  6. Morris, Stephen, 2007. "The impact of obesity on employment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 413-433, June.
  7. Edvard Johansson & Hannu Alho & Urpo Kiiskinen & Kari Poikolainen, 2007. "The association of alcohol dependency with employment probability: evidence from the population survey 'Health 2000 in Finland'," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(7), pages 739-754.
  8. Böckerman, Petri & Ilmakunnas, Pekka, 2007. "Unemployment and self-assessed health: Evidence from panel data," MPRA Paper 1798, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  9. Vincenzo Atella & Noemi Pace & Daniela Vuri, 2008. "Are employers discriminating with respect to weight? European Evidence using Quantile Regression," CEIS Research Paper 123, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 14 Jul 2008.
  10. Susan Averett & Sanders Korenman, 1993. "The Economic Reality of the Beauty Myth," NBER Working Papers 4521, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  11. Charles L. Baum & William F. Ford, 2004. "The wage effects of obesity: a longitudinal study," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(9), pages 885-899.
  12. Böckerman, Petri & Johansson, Edvard & Jousilahti, Pekka & Uutela, Antti, 2008. "The physical strenuousness of work is slightly associated with an upward trend in the BMI," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(6), pages 1346-1355, March.
  13. Hübler, Olaf, 2006. "The Nonlinear Link between Height and Wages: An Empirical Investigation," IZA Discussion Papers 2394, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  14. Giorgio Brunello & Beatrice d'Hombres, 2006. "Does Body Weight affect Wages? Evidence from Europe," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0027, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
  15. Nicola Persico & Andrew Postlewaite & Dan Silverman, 2004. "The Effect of Adolescent Experience on Labor Market Outcomes: The Case of Height," NBER Working Papers 10522, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  16. John Cawley, 2004. "The Impact of Obesity on Wages," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(2).
  17. Nicola Persico & Andrew Postlewaite & Dan Silverman, 2001. "The Effect of Adolescent Experience on Labor Market Outcomes: The Case of Height, Third Version," PIER Working Paper Archive 04-013, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 05 Jan 2004.
  18. Greve, Jane, 2008. "Obesity and labor market outcomes in Denmark," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 350-362, December.
  19. John Cawley & Sheldon Danziger, 2005. "Morbid obesity and the transition from welfare to work," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(4), pages 727-743.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Roy Wada & Erdal Tekin, 2007. "Body Composition and Wages," NBER Working Papers 13595, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Caliendo, Marco & Lee, Wang-Sheng, 2013. "Fat chance! Obesity and the transition from unemployment to employment," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 121-133.
  3. Asgeirsdottir, Tinna Laufey, 2011. "Do body weight and gender shape the work force? The case of Iceland," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 148-156, March.
  4. Donal O'Neill & Olive sweetman, 2012. "The Consequences of Measurement Error when Estimating the Impact of BMI on Labour Market Outcomes," Economics, Finance and Accounting Department Working Paper Series n232b-12.pdf, Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting, National University of Ireland - Maynooth.
  5. Böckerman, Petri & Johansson, Edvard & Kiiskinen, Urpo & Heliövaara, Markku, 2010. "Does physical capacity explain the height premium?," MPRA Paper 20108, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  6. Pablo Brañas-Garza & Antonios Proestakis, 2011. "Self-discrimination: A field experiment on obesity," Working Papers 11-17, Chapman University, Economic Science Institute.
  7. Böckerman, Petri & Johansson, Edvard & Kiiskinen, Urpo & Heliövaara, Markku, 2010. "The relationship between physical work and the height premium: Finnish evidence," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 414-420, December.
  8. Burkhauser, Richard V. & Cawley, John & Schmeiser, Maximilian D., 2009. "The timing of the rise in U.S. obesity varies with measure of fatness," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 307-318, December.
  9. Bockerman, Petri & Vainiomäki, Jari, 2012. "Stature and life-time labor market outcomes: Accounting for unobserved differences," MPRA Paper 42220, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  10. Parks, Joanna C. & Smith, Aaron D. & Alston, Julian M., 2010. "Quantifying Obesity in Economic Research: How Misleading is the Body Mass Index?," 2010 Annual Meeting, July 25-27, 2010, Denver, Colorado 61841, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
  11. Mosca, Irene, 2012. "Obesity and Employment in Ireland: Moving Beyond BMI," Papers WP431, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
  12. Classen, Timothy J., 2010. "Measures of the intergenerational transmission of body mass index between mothers and their children in the United States, 1981-2004," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 30-43, March.
  13. Averett, Susan L. & Argys, Laura & Kohn, Jennifer L., 2012. "Immigration, Obesity and Labor Market Outcomes in the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 6454, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  14. Hamermesh, Daniel S., 2010. "Incentives, time use and BMI: The roles of eating, grazing and goods," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 2-15, March.
  15. Hübler, Olaf, 2009. "The nonlinear link between height and wages in Germany, 1985-2004," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 191-199, July.

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