TY  - JOUR
AU  - Case,Anne
AU  - Paxson,Christina
AU  - Islam,Mahnaz
TI  - Making Sense of the Labor Market Height Premium: Evidence From the British Household Panel Survey
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14007
PY  - 2008
Y2  - May 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14007
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14007.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Anne Case
367 Wallace Hall
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
Tel: 609/258-2177
Fax: 609/258-5974
E-Mail: accase@princeton.edu

Christina Paxson
Office of the President
Brown University
Box 1860
Providence, RI  02912
Tel: 401/863-1979
E-Mail: christina_paxson@brown.edu

Mahnaz Islam
365 Wallace Hall
Princeton University
Princeton NJ 08544
E-Mail: mislam@princeton.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2009-01-01
AB  - We use nine waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) to investigate the large labor market height premium observed in the BHPS, where each inch of height is associated with a 1.5 percent increase in wages, for both men and women. We find that half of the premium can be explained by the association between height and educational attainment among BHPS participants. Of the remaining premium, half can be explained by taller individuals selecting into higher status occupations and industries. These effects are consistent with our earlier findings that taller individuals on average have greater cognitive function, which manifests in greater educational attainment, and better labor market opportunities.
ER  -