TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cawley,John
AU  - Danziger,Sheldon
TI  - Obesity as a Barrier to the Transition from Welfare to Work
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10508
PY  - 2004
Y2  - May 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10508
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10508.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
John Cawley
3M24 MVR Hall
Department of Policy Analysis and Management
and Department of Economics
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853
Tel: 607/255-0952
Fax: 607/255-4071
E-Mail: jhc38@cornell.edu

Sheldon Danziger
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
University of Michigan
735 South State St.
Weill Hall, Suite 5100
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Tel: 734 615 8321
Fax: 734-615-8047
E-Mail: sheldond@umich.edu
AB  - This paper utilizes a rich longitudinal data set -- the Women's Employment Study (WES)    to investigate whether obesity, which is common among women of low socioeconomic status, is a barrier to employment and earnings for current and former welfare recipients. We find evidence that, among current and former welfare recipients, high body weight is a greater barrier to labor market success for white women than for African-American women. Among white women, we consistently find a negative correlation between weight and labor market outcomes such as employment, hours worked, and earnings. Among African American women, weight is not correlated with employment, hours worked, or earnings, but it is correlated with the percentage of months spent on welfare between interviews. We provide suggestive evidence that these differences between white and African-American women in the relationship between body weight and labor market outcomes are partly due to differential weight-based discrimination in employment.
ER  -