IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v13y2004i9p885-899.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The wage effects of obesity: a longitudinal study

Author

Listed:
  • Charles L. Baum
  • William F. Ford

Abstract

We use National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data to examine the effects of obesity on wages by gender. Sample means indicate that both men and women experience a persistent obesity wage penalty over the first two decades of their careers. We then control for a standard set of socioeconomic and familial variables but find that standard covariates do not explain why obese workers experience persistent wage penalties. This suggests that other variables – including job discrimination, health‐related factors and/or obese workers' behavior patterns – may be the channels through which obesity adversely affects wages. The study closes with a discussion of the public policy implications suggested by these findings. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:13:y:2004:i:9:p:885-899
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.881
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.881
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.881?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paula England, 1982. "The Failure of Human Capital Theory to Explain Occupational Sex Segregation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 17(3), pages 358-370.
    2. Charles A. Register & Donald R. Williams, 1992. "Labor Market Effects of Marijuana and Cocaine Use among Young Men," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 45(3), pages 435-448, April.
    3. Tomas Philipson, 2001. "The world‐wide growth in obesity: an economic research agenda," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(1), pages 1-7, January.
    4. Kaestner, Robert, 1991. "The Effect of Illicit Drug Use on the Wages of Young Adults," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(4), pages 381-412, October.
    5. Blau, Francine D & Ferber, Marianne A, 1987. "Discrimination: Empirical Evidence from the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(2), pages 316-320, May.
    6. Phillip B. Levine & Tara A. Gustafson & Ann D. Velenchik, 1997. "More Bad News for Smokers? The Effects of Cigarette Smoking on Wages," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 50(3), pages 493-509, April.
    7. Susan Averett & Sanders Korenman, 1996. "The Economic Reality of the Beauty Myth," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 31(2), pages 304-330.
    8. Andrew M. Gill & Robert J. Michaels, 1992. "Does Drug Use Lower Wages?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 45(3), pages 419-434, April.
    9. Becker, Gary S & Murphy, Kevin M, 1988. "A Theory of Rational Addiction," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(4), pages 675-700, August.
    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. Ziggy MacDonald & Stephen Pudney, 2001. "Illicit drug use and labour market achievement: evidence from the UK," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(13), pages 1655-1668.
    2. Ziggy Macdonald & Michael A. Shields, 2001. "The Impact of Alcohol Consumption on Occupational Attainment in England," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(271), pages 427-453, August.
    3. Ziggy MacDonald & Michael Shields, "undated". "The Impact of Alcohol Use on Occupational Attainment and Wages," Discussion Papers in Public Sector Economics 98/8, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    4. Robert Kaestner, 1999. "Does Drug Use Cause Poverty?," NBER Chapters, in: The Economic Analysis of Substance Use and Abuse: An Integration of Econometric and Behavioral Economic Research, pages 327-368, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Jenny Williams & Christopher Skeels, 2006. "The Impact of Cannabis Use on Health," De Economist, Springer, vol. 154(4), pages 517-546, December.
    6. Heineck, Guido & Schwarze, Johannes, 2003. "Substance Use and Earnings: The Case of Smokers in Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 743, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Robert Kaestner, 1995. "The Effects of Cocaine and Marijuana Use on Marriage and Marital Stability," NBER Working Papers 5038, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Mezza, Alvaro & Buchinsky, Moshe, 2021. "Illegal drugs, education, and labor market outcomes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 223(2), pages 454-484.
    9. Ziggy MacDonald, 2004. "What Price Drug Use? The Contribution of Economics to an Evidence‐Based Drugs Policy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(2), pages 113-152, April.
    10. MacDonald, Ziggy & Pudney, Stephen, 2000. "Illicit drug use, unemployment, and occupational attainment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 1089-1115, November.
    11. Franz Wirl & Gustav Feichtinger, 1995. "Persistent Cyclical Consumption," Rationality and Society, , vol. 7(2), pages 156-166, April.
    12. Phillip B. Levine & Tara A. Gustafson & Ann D. Velenchik, 1995. "More Bad News for Smokers? The Effects of Cigarette Smoking on Labor Market Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 5270, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Z. MacDonald & S. Pudney, 2000. "Analysing drug abuse with British Crime Survey data: modelling and questionnaire design issues," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 49(1), pages 95-117.
    14. Tekin, Erdal, 2002. "Employment, Wages, and Alcohol Consumption in Russia: Evidence from Panel Data," IZA Discussion Papers 432, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. van Ours, J.C., 2005. "Cannabis, Cocaine and the Wages of Prime Age Males," Discussion Paper 2005-14, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    16. Suryadipta Roy, 2007. "Are Illegal Drugs Inferior Goods in the US?," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 35(3), pages 303-314, September.
    17. Jan C. Ours & Jenny Williams, 2015. "Cannabis Use And Its Effects On Health, Education And Labor Market Success," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 993-1010, December.
    18. Williams, Jenny & van Ours, Jan C., 2017. "Early Cannabis Use and School to Work Transition of Young Men," IZA Discussion Papers 10488, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Charles Register & Donald Williams & Paul Grimes, 2001. "Adolescent Drug Use and Educational Attainment," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 1-18.
    20. Robert Kaestner, 1998. "Drug use and AFDC participation: Is there a connection?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(3), pages 495-520.

    More about this item

    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:wly:hlthec:v:13:y:2004:i:9:p:885-899. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    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.