title: Assessing the impact of obesity on labor market outcomes.
abstract: We study the effect of obesity on employment, using rich data from the British National Child Development Study (NCDS). The results show a significant negative association between obesity and employment even after controlling for a rich set of demographic, socioeconomic, environmental and behavioral variables. In order to account for the endogeneity of obesity, we use and assess instruments introduced by Cawley (2004); the obesity status of biological relatives. Using parental obesity as an instrument, we show that the association between obesity and employment is no longer significant. Similar results are obtained in a model of first differences. We provide a number of different checks on the instruments, by exploiting the richness of the NCDS data. The results show mixed evidence regarding the validity of the instruments.
authors.affiliation: VU University Amsterdam, Tinbergen Institute, HEB, Netspar, and IZA.
authors.forename: Maarten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lindeboom
authors.forename: Petter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lundborg
authors.forename: Bas
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: van der Klaauw
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D004522:Educational Status; D036262:Empirical Research; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009426:Netherlands; D009765:Obesity / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D011287:Prejudice; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D055815:Young Adult