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Title: "Do I Look Fat?" Self-Perceived Body Weight and Labor Market Outcomes
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Smith, Patricia K.
Zagorsky, Jay L.
"Do I Look Fat?" Self-Perceived Body Weight and Labor Market Outcomes
Economics and Human Biology 30 (September 2018): 48-58.
Also: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X17302617
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Employment; Labor Market Outcomes; Self-Perception; Wages; Weight

Research reporting that greater body weight is associated with lower wages and employment, particularly among women, focuses on how employers perceive workers. In contrast, we examine whether workers' own perceptions of body weight influence labor market outcomes. Numerous studies find that misperception of body weight influences health behaviors and health, both mental and physical. For example, anorexia nervosa involves the over-perception of weight and raises the risk of cardiovascular disease. Do the health consequences of inaccurate self-perceived weight carry through to the labor market? We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) to investigate patterns in weight misperception and three labor market outcomes. We find little evidence that either over-perception or under-perception of weight is associated with wages, weeks worked, or the number of jobs held for women and men.
Bibliography Citation
Smith, Patricia K. and Jay L. Zagorsky. ""Do I Look Fat?" Self-Perceived Body Weight and Labor Market Outcomes." Economics and Human Biology 30 (September 2018): 48-58.