title: The stature of the self-employed and its relation with earnings and satisfaction.
abstract: Taller individuals have on average a higher socio-economic status than shorter individuals. In countries where entrepreneurs have high social status, we may therefore expect that entrepreneurs are taller than wage workers. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (2002-2012), we find that a 1cm increase in an individual's height raises the probability of being self-employed (the most common proxy for entrepreneurship) versus paid employed by 0.15 percentage points. Within the self-employed, the probability of being an employer is increased by 0.10 percentage points as a result of a 1cm increase in height, whereas this increase is 0.05 percentage points for an own-account worker. This result corroborates the higher social status of employers compared to own-account workers. We find a height premium in earnings for self-employed and paid-employed individuals: an additional 1cm in height is associated with a 0.39% increase in hourly earnings for paid employees and a 0.52% increase for self-employed individuals. Our analysis reveals that approximately one third of the height premium in earnings is explained by differences in educational attainment. We also establish the existence of a height premium in terms of work and life satisfaction, which is more pronounced for paid employees than for self-employed individuals.
authors.affiliation: Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, PO Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Erasmus University Rotterdam Institute for Behavior and Biology (EURIBEB), Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Cornelius A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Rietveld
authors.affiliation: Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, PO Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organisation (EHERO), Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jolanda
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hessels
authors.affiliation: Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, PO Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organisation (EHERO), Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: vanderzwan@ese.eur.nl.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van der Zwan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001827:Body Height; D002321:Career Choice; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016520:Entrepreneurship / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Education; Height premium; Life satisfaction; Self-employment; Stature