Arbeitspapier
No country for fat men? Obesity, earnings, skills, and health among 450,000 Swedish men
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.
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 4775
- Classification
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Wirtschaft
Health: General
Demographic Economics: General
Labor Discrimination: General
- Subject
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Obesity
overweight
earnings
cognitive ability
non-cognitive ability
health
physical fitness
Gesundheitsrisiko
Männer
Lohndifferenzierung
Qualifikation
Kognitive Fähigkeiten
Schweden
- Event
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
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Lundborg, Petter
Nystedt, Paul
Rooth, Dan-Olof
- Event
-
Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
- (where)
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Bonn
- (when)
-
2010
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Lundborg, Petter
- Nystedt, Paul
- Rooth, Dan-Olof
- Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Time of origin
- 2010