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Title: Direct and Indirect Effects of Teenage Body Weight on Adult Wages
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Han, Euna
Norton, Edward C.
Powell, Lisa M.
Direct and Indirect Effects of Teenage Body Weight on Adult Wages
Presented: Chicago, IL, Academy Health Annual Research Meeting, June 28-30, 2009
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: AcademyHealth
Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Education; Occupational Choice; Wage Effects

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Research Objective: This paper examines the direct effect of BMI on wages and the indirect effects operating through education and occupation choice, particularly for late-teen BMI and adult wages. In addition to the direct effect of BMI in the late teenage years between age 16 and 20 on long-term wages in the early thirties, late teen BMI is hypothesized to also affect wages in the early thirties indirectly through its effect on education and occupation choice in the early thirties.

Study Design: We present an empirical model that predicts wages as a function of BMI (the direct effect), education and occupation choice (indirect effects of BMI), and other factors. The effect of a unit change in late teen BMI on the logarithm of wages in the early career stage is the full derivative of the logarithm of wages in the early career with respect to late teen BMI, taking into account the indirect effect of late teen BMI through education and occupation choice in the early career. To calculate the indirect effects, we estimate the effect of late teen BMI on the stock of education accumulated by the time an individual reaches their early 30s using OLS. We specify education in the early thirties as a function of late teen BMI and other factors in the early thirties. We then estimate reduced form models of the effect of late teen BMI on occupation choice among white-collar, service, sales, managerial or professional specialty jobs, and blue-collar jobs (based on Census occupational codes), and choice of jobs requiring social interactions with colleagues or customers (based on the Dictionary of Occupation Titles).

Bibliography Citation
Han, Euna, Edward C. Norton and Lisa M. Powell. "Direct and Indirect Effects of Teenage Body Weight on Adult Wages." Presented: Chicago, IL, Academy Health Annual Research Meeting, June 28-30, 2009.