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Wage Gains Associated with Height as a Form of Health Human Capital

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Author Info
T. Paul Schultz () (Economic Growth Center, Yale University)

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Abstract

Height is consulted as a latent indicator of early nutrition and lifetime health status. Height is observed to increase in recent decades in populations where per capita national income has increased and public health activities have grown. Height is determined by genetic make up and realized in part through satisfactory nutrition and health related care and conditions. Alternative instrumental variables (IV) are explored which proxy price and income constraints which are expected to influence the latter reproducible human capital investments in height. I report OLS and IV estimates of the partial effect of height on log hourly wages in recent national surveys from three countries: Ghana, Brazil and the United States. I conclude that the human capital productivity effect of height estimated by parent education IVs in the US and Ghana are many times larger than the OLS estimates, and in Ghana and Brazil the regional price IVs estimates also imply a substantially larger human capital wage effects of height compared with the OLS estimates. The OLS estimates of height effects on wages are dominated by the genetic variation in height, and appear to understate substantially the human capital returns to health and nutrition inputs which increase adult height.

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Paper provided by Economic Growth Center, Yale University in its series Working Papers with number 841.

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Length: 12 pages
Date of creation: Feb 2002
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Handle: RePEc:egc:wpaper:841

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Related research
Keywords: Health; Height; Wages; Human Capital;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Production
J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Strauss, John & Thomas, Duncan, 1995. "Human resources: Empirical modeling of household and family decisions," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery† & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 1883-2023 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Schultz, T. Paul & Tansel, Aysit, 1997. "Wage and labor supply effects of illness in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana: instrumental variable estimates for days disabled," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 251-286, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Strauss, J. & Thomas, D., 1995. "Empirical Modeling of Household and Family Decisions," Papers 95-12, RAND - Reprint Series.
  4. Strauss, John, 1986. "Does Better Nutrition Raise Farm Productivity?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(2), pages 297-320, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Card, David, 1999. "The causal effect of education on earnings," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 30, pages 1801-1863 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Jacoby, Hanan G & Skoufias, Emmanuel, 1997. "Risk, Financial Markets, and Human Capital in a Developing Country," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 64(3), pages 311-35, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Yoko Akachi & David Canning, 2007. "The Height of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa: the Role of Health, Nutrition, and Income in Childhood," PGDA Working Papers 2207, Program on the Global Demography of Aging. [Downloadable!]
  2. John Komlos, 2009. "Recent Trends in Height by Gender and Ethnicity in the US in Relation to Levels of Income," NBER Working Papers 14635, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. David Canning, 2006. "The Economics of HIV/AIDS in Low-Income Countries: The Case for Prevention," PGDA Working Papers 1806, Program on the Global Demography of Aging. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. John C. Brown & Timothy W. Guinnane, 2003. "Two Statistical Problems in the Princeton Project on the European Fertility," Working Papers 869, Economic Growth Center, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
  5. Monasterio, Leonardo M & Noguerol, Luiz Paulo & Shikida, Claudio Djissey, 2006. "Growth and inequalities of height in Brazil (1939-1981)," MPRA Paper 769, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jul 2006. [Downloadable!]
  6. Dohmen, Thomas J & Falk, Armin & Huffman, David & Schupp, Jürgen & Sunde, Uwe & Wagner, Gert Georg, 2006. "Individual Risk Attitudes: New Evidence from a Large, Representative, Experimentally-Validated Survey," CEPR Discussion Papers 5517, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Lars Osberg & Jiaping Shao & Kuan Xu, 2007. "The Growth of Poor Children in China 1991-2000: Why Food Subsidies May Matter," Department of Economics at Dalhousie University working papers archive wider_nov_18_2007.pdf, Dalhousie, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Wenshu Gao & Russell Smyth, 2009. "Health Human Capital, Height and Wages in China," Monash Economics Working Papers 05/09, Monash University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  9. Tue Gørgens & Xin Meng & Rhema Vaithianathan, 2007. "Stunting and Selection Effects of Famine: A Case Study of the Great Chinese Famine," IZA Discussion Papers 2543, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  10. Dalgaard, Carl-Johan & Strulik, Holger, 2008. "A Bioeconomic Foundation for the Nutrition-based Efficiency Wage Model," Diskussionspapiere der Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Hannover dp-396, Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät. [Downloadable!]
  11. Komlos, John, 2009. "How useful is anthropometric history?," Discussion Papers in Economics 10587, University of Munich, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  12. Ali, Mubarik & Farooq, Umar, 2004. "Dietary Diversity And Rural Labor Productivity: Evidence From Pakistan," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20310, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association). [Downloadable!]
  13. Pieter Serneels, 2004. "The Nature of Unemployment in Urban Ethiopia," Development and Comp Systems 0409042, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  14. Paternostro, Stefano & Rajaram, Anand & Tiongson, Erwin R., 2005. "How does the composition of public spending matter?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3555, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  15. Olaf Hübler, 2006. "The Nonlinear Link between Height and Wages: An Empirical Investigation," IZA Discussion Papers 2394, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  16. Xin Meng & Nancy Qian, 2009. "The Long Term Consequences of Famine on Survivors: Evidence from a Unique Natural Experiment using China's Great Famine," NBER Working Papers 14917, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Luiz Paulo Nogueról & Cláudio D. Shikida & Leonardo M. Monasterio, 2005. "Seis Centímetros: Uma Analíse Antropométrica Da Pof 2002- 2003," Anais do XXXIII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 33th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 159, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pósgraduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics]. [Downloadable!]
  18. Sambit Bhattacharyya, 2008. "Root Causes of African Underdevelopment," Departmental Working Papers 2008-16, Australian National University, Economics RSPAS. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  19. T. Paul Schultz, 2003. "Wage Rentals for Reproducible Human Capital: Evidence from Ghana and the Ivory Coast," Working Papers 868, Economic Growth Center, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  20. Yoko Akachi & David Canning, 2008. "The Mortality and Morbidity Transitions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Adult Heights," PGDA Working Papers 3308, Program on the Global Demography of Aging. [Downloadable!]
  21. T. Paul Schultz, 2003. "Human Capital, Schooling and Health Returns," Working Papers 853, Economic Growth Center, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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