Working Paper: NBER ID: w22430
Authors: Donna B. Gilleskie; Euna Han; Edward C. Norton
Abstract: In this study we quantify the life-cycle effects of human and health capital on the wage distribution of females, with a focus on health measured by body mass. We use NLSY79 data on women followed annually up to twenty years during the time of their lives when average annual weight gain is greatest. We allow body mass to explain variation in wages contemporaneously conditional on observed measures of human capital and productivity histories (namely, education, employment experience, marital status, and family size) and dynamically over the life cycle through its impact on the endogenous histories of behaviors that determine wages. We find significant differences in the contemporaneous effect and the dynamic effect of body mass on wages, both across females of different races and over the distribution of wages.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I12; J12; J13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| body mass (I12) | wages (J31) |
| body mass influences educational attainment (I24) | wages (J31) |
| body mass influences employment opportunities (J79) | wages (J31) |
| body mass influences other behaviors over time (D91) | wages (J31) |
| body mass (I12) | educational attainment (I21) |
| body mass (I12) | employment opportunities (J68) |
| body mass (I12) | other behaviors (C92) |