Bozoyan C, Wolbring T (2011)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Journal article, Original article
Publication year: 2011
Book Volume: 9
Pages Range: 356 - 363
Journal Issue: 4
DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2011.07.001
Recent studies in health economics have generated two important findings: that as a measure of fatness the body mass index (BMI) is biased; and that, when it comes to analyzing wage correlates, both fat-free mass (FFM) and body fat (BF) are better suited to the task. We validate these findings for Germany using the BIAdata Base Project and the German Socio-Economic Panel. While we find no significant correlation between BMI and wages in any of our models, simple linear regression models featuring both contemporary and time-lagged fatness measures indicate that FFM and, to a lesser extent, BF are associated with hourly wages: more specifically, the relationship between FFM/BF and hourly wages is about two to three times higher for females than for males. In contrast, fixed-effects models indicate that there is no correlation between hourly wages and both FFM and BF with one exception: a significant correlation (and one in line with expectations) is found to be the rule among job changers.
APA:
Bozoyan, C., & Wolbring, T. (2011). Fat, Muscles, and Wages. Economics & Human Biology, 9(4), 356 - 363. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2011.07.001
MLA:
Bozoyan, Christiane, and Tobias Wolbring. "Fat, Muscles, and Wages." Economics & Human Biology 9.4 (2011): 356 - 363.
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