Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/250596 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 14935
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper investigates the roots of labour market discrimination underlying the negative correlation between body fat percentage and wages. Using a large panel dataset of individuals drawn from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) for the US, we test whether residual wage gaps (once observed differences in productivity related to obesity are controlled for) are due to prejudice (taste-based discrimination) or statistical discrimination. Our main contribution is to examine how these two types of discrimination hinge on a wide range of obese individuals' specific job and occupational characteristics (drawn from the O * Net Online database). Our analysis sheds light on whether discrimination originates from the attitudes of clients, fellow-workers or employers. We find strong empirical evidence supporting taste-based discrimination against obese females, especially as they become older, in jobs requiring frequent communication with either clients or employers. The evidence on this issue for males is weaker. These differences may be explained both by an over-representation of males among employers and different image concerns against people of the same gender.
Subjects: 
obesity
wages
job characteristics
NLSY97
O*Net Online
JEL: 
J71
J15
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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