Working Paper: NBER ID: w26325
Authors: Michael Baker; Kirsten Cornelson
Abstract: We revisit the US evidence of the association of height with socioeconomic status. We document non linear height profiles that are different for males and females. For males the profile is a spline function with a single node at mean height. Below mean height there is a sharply positive slope with height, while the function is roughly horizontal above the mean. For females the spline has two nodes. There is positive slope below mean height and in the top 10 percent of heights, and the profile is roughly horizontal between the mean and the 90th percentile. Remarkably, these stylized profiles describe the association of height with socioeconomic outcomes ranging from teenage cognitive scores to adult poverty, suggesting a common origin. We investigate some of the implications of these findings for analyses of the contributions of cognitive and non cognitive skills to the height profile in wages.
Keywords: height; socioeconomic status; cognitive skills; non-cognitive skills; wages
JEL Codes: I3; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| height (Y60) | socioeconomic status (SES) (I24) |
| height (below mean) (Y10) | socioeconomic status (SES) (I24) |
| height (above mean) (Y10) | socioeconomic status (SES) (I24) |
| cognitive skills (G53) | wage variation (J31) |
| height (below mean) (Y10) | cognitive skills (G53) |
| height (below mean) (Y10) | wage variation (J31) |