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Title: Height, Skills, and Labor Market Outcomes in Mexico

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2011

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Abstract: Researchers have used the positive relationship between height and earnings to shed light on the productivity of health as well as the effect of health on economic growth. Aprominent explanation for this relationship is that physical growth and cognitive development share inputs, inducing a correlation between height and two productive skills, strength and intelligence. This paper uses data from Mexico to examine the skill returns underlying the labor market height premium in poorer countries. Consistent with the shared inputs hypothesis, parental socioeconomic status and childhood living conditions are positively associated with height, cognitive skill, and educational attainment in adulthood. Cognitive test scores account for a limited portion of the earnings premium to taller workers, but roughly half of the premium can be attributed to these workers higher educational attainment or to their more lucrative occupations, which have greater intelligence requirements and lower strength requirements. These patterns suggest that the height premium partly reflects a return to cognitive skill, even in an economy reliant on manual labor.

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Authors: Vogl, Tom

Publisher: Harvard University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration

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