Working Paper: NBER ID: w10508
Authors: John Cawley; Sheldon Danziger
Abstract: This paper utilizes a rich longitudinal data set -- the Women's Employment Study (WES) to investigate whether obesity, which is common among women of low socioeconomic status, is a barrier to employment and earnings for current and former welfare recipients. We find evidence that, among current and former welfare recipients, high body weight is a greater barrier to labor market success for white women than for African-American women. Among white women, we consistently find a negative correlation between weight and labor market outcomes such as employment, hours worked, and earnings. Among African American women, weight is not correlated with employment, hours worked, or earnings, but it is correlated with the percentage of months spent on welfare between interviews. We provide suggestive evidence that these differences between white and African-American women in the relationship between body weight and labor market outcomes are partly due to differential weight-based discrimination in employment.
Keywords: obesity; welfare; employment; labor market outcomes; racial differences
JEL Codes: I3; J0; I1
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Obesity (I12) | Probability of current employment (White Females) (J21) |
| Obesity (I12) | Probability of full-time employment (White Females) (J21) |
| Obesity (I12) | Percentage of months spent on welfare (White Females) (I38) |
| Obesity (I12) | Percentage of months spent on welfare (African American Females) (I38) |
| Obesity (I12) | Hours worked per week (White Females) (J29) |
| Obesity (I12) | Earnings in the previous month (White Females) (J31) |