IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/grt/wpegrt/2016-18.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The effects of bodyweight on wages in urban Mexico

Author

Listed:
  • Pierre LEVASSEUR

Abstract

The effects of bodyweight on wages seem to be closely linked to the level of development of the country concerned. In rich countries, overweight and obese workers seem usually penalized, whereas in the poorest societies the fattest tend to earn more. However, in several emerging economies such as Mexico, the nature of the effect is complex and remains still unknown. Given a complex nutritional situation where hunger and obesity coexist, the literature suggests a quadratic relationship in these countries. The main objective of this study is to explore the impact of bodyweight on wages in urban Mexico using panel data from the Mexican Family Life Survey. Two main methodological treatments are highlighted. First, we implement a two-stage model, based on an expanded Mincer earning function, to control for potential sample selection bias and endogeneity problems. Second, we use complementary parametric and semi-parametric estimators in order to analyze accurately the nature of the relationship. Our results show that the effects of bodyweight on wages in Mexico depend on the kind of contract and gender. For employees with formal contracts, BMI tends to have a negative and linear impact on wages, especially for women. By contrast, we find a positive but non-significant causal relationship between bodyweight and wages for employees with informal contracts. Note that this surprising result could concern women particularly. However, the difficulty in well identifying the earning function of such informal employments is likely to overstate this positive effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierre LEVASSEUR, 2016. "The effects of bodyweight on wages in urban Mexico," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2016-18, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
  • Handle: RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2016-18
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://cahiersdugretha.u-bordeaux.fr/2016/2016-18.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gong, Xiaodong & Van Soest, Arthur & Villagomez, Elizabeth, 2004. "Mobility in the Urban Labor Market: A Panel Data Analysis for Mexico," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(1), pages 1-36, October.
    2. LEVASSEUR Pierre, 2015. "Causal effects of socioeconomic status on central adiposity: Evidence using panel data from urban Mexico," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2015-09, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    3. Levasseur, Pierre, 2015. "Causal effects of socioeconomic status on central adiposity risks: Evidence using panel data from urban Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 136, pages 165-174.
    4. Robinson, Peter M, 1988. "Root- N-Consistent Semiparametric Regression," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(4), pages 931-954, July.
    5. Paul Schultz, T., 2003. "Wage rentals for reproducible human capital: evidence from Ghana and the Ivory Coast," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 331-366, December.
    6. Chiquiar, Daniel, 2008. "Globalization, regional wage differentials and the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem: Evidence from Mexico," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 70-93, January.
    7. Levasseur, Pierre, 2015. "Causal effects of socioeconomic status on central adiposity risks: Evidence using panel data from urban Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 136, pages 165-174.
    8. Brunello, Giorgio & D'Hombres, Beatrice, 2007. "Does body weight affect wages?: Evidence from Europe," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 1-19, March.
    9. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    10. PAN, Jay & QIN, Xuezheng & LIU, Gordon G., 2013. "The impact of body size on urban employment: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 249-263.
    11. Dinda, Soumyananda & Gangopadhyay, P.K. & Chattopadhyay, B.P. & Saiyed, H.N. & Pal, M. & Bharati, P., 2006. "Height, weight and earnings among coalminers in India," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 342-350, December.
    12. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1, January.
    13. Sarlio-Lähteenkorva, S. & Silventoinen, K. & Lahelma, E., 2004. "Relative Weight and Income at Different Levels of Socioeconomic Status," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 94(3), pages 468-472.
    14. John Cawley, 2004. "The Impact of Obesity on Wages," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(2).
    15. Bonnefond, Céline & Clément, Matthieu, 2014. "Social class and body weight among Chinese urban adults: The role of the middle classes in the nutrition transition," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 22-29.
    16. Colchero, M. Arantxa & Bishai, David, 2012. "Weight and earnings among childbearing women in Metropolitan Cebu, Philippines (1983–2002)," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 256-263.
    17. Morris, Stephen, 2007. "The impact of obesity on employment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 413-433, June.
    18. Meliyanni Johar & Hajime Katayama, 2012. "Quantile regression analysis of body mass and wages," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(5), pages 597-611, May.
    19. Charles F. Manski, 1993. "Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 60(3), pages 531-542.
    20. 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, September.
    21. Runge, C. Ford, 2007. "The Economic Consequences of the Obese," Working Papers 7261, University of Minnesota, Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy.
    22. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    23. Satoru Shimokawa, 2008. "The labour market impact of body weight in China: a semiparametric analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(8), pages 949-968.
    24. Mroz, Thomas A, 1987. "The Sensitivity of an Empirical Model of Married Women's Hours of Work to Economic and Statistical Assumptions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(4), pages 765-799, July.
    25. Celine Bonnefond & Matthieu Clement, 2014. "Social class and body weight among Chinese urban adults: The role of the middle classes in the nutrition transition," Post-Print hal-03122548, HAL.
    26. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    27. Peter Glick & David E. Sahn, 1998. "Health and productivity in a heterogeneous urban labour market," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(2), pages 203-216, February.
    28. Moulton, Brent R, 1990. "An Illustration of a Pitfall in Estimating the Effects of Aggregate Variables on Micro Unit," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 334-338, May.
    29. Abbi M. Kedir, 2008. "Health and Wages: Panel Evidence on Men and Women using IV Quantile Regression," Discussion Papers in Economics 08/37, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Levasseur, Pierre, 2017. "The ambiguous causal relationship between body-mass and labour income in emerging economies: The case of Mexico," MPRA Paper 81933, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Cawley, John & Han, Euna & Norton, Edward C., 2009. "Obesity and labor market outcomes among legal immigrants to the United States from developing countries," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 153-164, July.
    3. Wu, Hania Fei, 2021. "Social determination, health selection or indirect selection? Examining the causal directions between socioeconomic status and obesity in the Chinese adult population," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    4. Nuñez, Roy, 2020. "Obesity and labor market in Peru," MPRA Paper 105621, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Larose, Samantha L. & Kpelitse, Koffi A. & Campbell, M. Karen & Zaric, Gregory S. & Sarma, Sisira, 2016. "Does obesity influence labour market outcomes among working-age adults? Evidence from Canadian longitudinal data," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 26-41.
    6. Raymundo M. Campos-Vazquez & Roy Nuñez, 2019. "Obesity and labor market outcomes in Mexico/Obesidad y el mercado de trabajo en México," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 34(2), pages 159-196.
    7. Colchero, M. Arantxa & Bishai, David, 2012. "Weight and earnings among childbearing women in Metropolitan Cebu, Philippines (1983–2002)," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 256-263.
    8. Jiangli Dou & Limin Du & Ken Wang & Hailin Sun & Chenggang Zhang, 2020. "Wage Penalties or Wage Premiums? A Socioeconomic Analysis of Gender Disparity in Obesity in Urban China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-20, September.
    9. Wenshu Gao & Russell Smyth, 2010. "Health Human Capital, Height and Wages in China," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(3), pages 466-484.
    10. Han, Euna & Norton, Edward C. & Powell, Lisa M., 2011. "Direct and indirect effects of body weight on adult wages," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 381-392.
    11. Chu, Filmer & Ohinmaa, Arto, 2016. "The obesity penalty in the labor market using longitudinal Canadian data," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 10-17.
    12. Johansson, Edvard & Böckerman, Petri & Kiiskinen, Urpo & Heliövaara, Markku, 2009. "Obesity and labour market success in Finland: The difference between having a high BMI and being fat," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 36-45, March.
    13. Pierre Levasseur, 2021. "Dynamics of the Bodyweight-Wage Relationship in Emerging Countries: Evidence from Mexico [Dynamiques de la relation entre corpulence et salaire dans les pays émergents : le cas du Mexique]," Post-Print hal-03335825, HAL.
    14. Mosca, Irene, 2013. "Body mass index, waist circumference and employment: Evidence from older Irish adults," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 522-533.
    15. Kinge, Jonas Minet, 2015. "Body mass index and employment status: a new look," HERO Online Working Paper Series 2015:3, University of Oslo, Health Economics Research Programme.
    16. Shoshana Grossbard & Sankar Mukhopadhyay, 2017. "Marriage markets as explanation for why heavier people work more hours," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-30, December.
    17. Pagan, Ricardo & Haro, Carmen Ordóñez de & Sánchez, Carlos Rivas, 2016. "Obesity, job satisfaction and disability at older ages in Europe," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 42-54.
    18. Daran, Bertille & Levasseur, Pierre, 2022. "Is overweight still a problem of rich in sub-Saharan Africa? Insights based on female-oriented demographic and health surveys," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    19. Kinge, Jonas Minet, 2016. "Waist circumference, body mass index and employment outcomes," HERO Online Working Paper Series 2016:4, University of Oslo, Health Economics Research Programme.
    20. Bozoyan, Christiane & Wolbring, Tobias, 2011. "Fat, muscles, and wages," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 356-363.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mexico; emerging countries; wage; kind of contract; bodyweight; obesity.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2016-18. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ernest Miguelez (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifredfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.