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No Country for Fat Men? Obesity, Earnings, Skills, and Health among 450,000 Swedish Men

Author

Listed:
  • Lundborg, Petter

    (Lund University)

  • Nystedt, Paul

    (Linköping University)

  • Rooth, Dan-Olof

    (Stockholm University)

Abstract

The negative association between obesity and labor market outcomes has been widely documented, yet little is known about the mechanisms through which the association arises. Using rich and unique data on 450,000 Swedish men enlisting for the military, we find that the crude obesity penalty in earnings, which amounts to about 18 percent, is linked to supply-side characteristics that are associated with both earnings and obesity. In particular, we show that the penalty reflects negative associations between obesity, on the one hand, and cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, and physical fitness, on the other. Our results suggest that employers use obesity as a marker for skill limitations in order to statistically discriminate.

Suggested Citation

  • Lundborg, Petter & Nystedt, Paul & Rooth, Dan-Olof, 2010. "No Country for Fat Men? Obesity, Earnings, Skills, and Health among 450,000 Swedish Men," IZA Discussion Papers 4775, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4775
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. No Country for Fat Men?
      by Ariel Goldring in Free Market Mojo on 2010-03-08 18:29:42

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    Cited by:

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    3. 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.
    4. Rooth, Dan-Olof, 2011. "Work out or out of work -- The labor market return to physical fitness and leisure sports activities," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 399-409, June.
    5. Nuñez, Roy, 2020. "Obesity and labor market in Peru," MPRA Paper 105621, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    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. Giovanni Busetta & Maria Gabriella Campolo & Demetrio Panarello, 2020. "Weight-Based Discrimination in the Italian Labor Market: an Analysis of the Interaction with Gender and Ethnicity," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 18(4), pages 617-637, December.
    8. Lindeboom, Maarten & Lundborg, Petter & van der Klaauw, Bas, 2010. "Assessing the impact of obesity on labor market outcomes," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 309-319, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    health; earnings; physical fitness; obesity; cognitive ability; non-cognitive ability; overweight;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • J70 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - General

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