Height and Earnings: The Role of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills
(2014) In Journal of Human Resources 49(1). p.141-166- Abstract
- We use large-scale register data on 450,000 Swedish males who underwent mandatory military enlistment at age 18, and a subsample of 150,000 siblings, to examine why tall people earn more. We show the importance of both cognitive and noncognitive skills, as well as family background and muscular strength for the height-earnings relationship. In addition, we show that a substantial height premium remains after these factors have been accounted for, which originates from very short people having low earnings. This is mostly explained by the sorting of short people into low-paid occupations, which may indicate discrimination by stature.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4367234
- author
- Lundborg, Petter LU ; Nystedt, Paul and Rooth, Dan-Olof
- organization
- publishing date
- 2014
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Journal of Human Resources
- volume
- 49
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 141 - 166
- publisher
- University of Wisconsin Press
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000331498500005
- scopus:84894047892
- ISSN
- 0022-166X
- DOI
- 10.3368/jhr.49.1.141
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 32d8c6ef-40fb-4616-aeff-703166d96dda (old id 4367234)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 13:45:11
- date last changed
- 2022-04-21 23:21:19
@article{32d8c6ef-40fb-4616-aeff-703166d96dda, abstract = {{We use large-scale register data on 450,000 Swedish males who underwent mandatory military enlistment at age 18, and a subsample of 150,000 siblings, to examine why tall people earn more. We show the importance of both cognitive and noncognitive skills, as well as family background and muscular strength for the height-earnings relationship. In addition, we show that a substantial height premium remains after these factors have been accounted for, which originates from very short people having low earnings. This is mostly explained by the sorting of short people into low-paid occupations, which may indicate discrimination by stature.}}, author = {{Lundborg, Petter and Nystedt, Paul and Rooth, Dan-Olof}}, issn = {{0022-166X}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{1}}, pages = {{141--166}}, publisher = {{University of Wisconsin Press}}, series = {{Journal of Human Resources}}, title = {{Height and Earnings: The Role of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3368/jhr.49.1.141}}, doi = {{10.3368/jhr.49.1.141}}, volume = {{49}}, year = {{2014}}, }