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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
    1. Case, Anne & Paxson, Christina & Islam, Mahnaz, 2009. "Making sense of the labor market height premium: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 102(3), pages 174-176, March.
    2. Rietveld, Cornelius A. & Hessels, Jolanda & van der Zwan, Peter, 2015. "The stature of the self-employed and its relation with earnings and satisfaction," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 59-74.
    3. Anne Case & Christina Paxson, 2008. "Stature and Status: Height, Ability, and Labor Market Outcomes," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(3), pages 499-532, June.
    4. Gabriela Schütz & Heinrich W. Ursprung & Ludger Wößmann, 2008. "Education Policy and Equality of Opportunity," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 279-308, May.
    5. Erik Lindqvist, 2012. "Height and Leadership," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 94(4), pages 1191-1196, November.
    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.
    7. Guido Heineck, 2005. "Up in the Skies? The Relationship between Body Height and Earnings in Germany," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 19(3), pages 469-489, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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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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