IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp9907.html

The Effect of Weight on Labor Market Outcomes: An Application of Genetic Instrumental Variables

Author

Listed:
  • Böckerman, Petri

    (University of Jyväskylä)

  • Cawley, John

    (Cornell University)

  • Viinikainen, Jutta

    (Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics)

  • Lehtimäki, Terho

    (University of Tampere)

  • Rovio, Suvi

    (University of Turku)

  • Seppälä, Ilkka

    (University of Tampere)

  • Pehkonen, Jaakko

    (Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics)

  • Raitakari, Olli

    (University of Turku)

Abstract

The increase in the prevalence of obesity worldwide has led to great interest in the economic consequences of obesity, but valid and powerful instruments for obesity, which are needed to estimate its causal effects, are rare. This paper contributes to the literature by using a novel instrument: genetic risk score, which reflects the predisposition to higher body mass index across many genetic loci. We estimate IV models of the effect of BMI on labor market outcomes using Finnish data that have many strengths: genetic information, measured body mass index, and administrative earnings records that are free of the problems associated with nonresponse, self-reporting error or top-coding. The first stage of the IV models indicate that genetic risk score is a powerful instrument, and the available evidence from the genetics literature is consistent with instrument validity. The results of the IV models indicate weight reduces earnings and employment and increases social income transfers, although we caution that the results are based on small samples, and are sensitive to specification and subsample.

Suggested Citation

  • Böckerman, Petri & Cawley, John & Viinikainen, Jutta & Lehtimäki, Terho & Rovio, Suvi & Seppälä, Ilkka & Pehkonen, Jaakko & Raitakari, Olli, 2016. "The Effect of Weight on Labor Market Outcomes: An Application of Genetic Instrumental Variables," IZA Discussion Papers 9907, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9907
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp9907.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

    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:iza:izadps:dp9907. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.