Stature, Skills and Adult Life Outcomes: Evidence from Indonesia
BARGAIN, Olivier
Laboratoire d'analyse et de recherche en économie et finance internationales [Larefi]
Laboratoire d'analyse et de recherche en économie et finance internationales [Larefi]
BARGAIN, Olivier
Laboratoire d'analyse et de recherche en économie et finance internationales [Larefi]
< Reduce
Laboratoire d'analyse et de recherche en économie et finance internationales [Larefi]
Language
EN
Article de revue
This item was published in
The Journal of Development Studies. 2014-07p. 1-18
English Abstract
We investigate the effect of height on earnings, occupational choices and a subjective measure of well-being among Indonesian men. We explore the extent to which height captures the effects of human capital endowments set ...Read more >
We investigate the effect of height on earnings, occupational choices and a subjective measure of well-being among Indonesian men. We explore the extent to which height captures the effects of human capital endowments set before entry on the labor market. Cognitive skills, co-determined with stature early in life, do not explain much of the height earnings premium directly. Yet, human capital more broadly, including cognition, educational attainment and other factors related to parental investments and background characteristics, explains around half of the height premium and does so through occupational sorting. Indeed, taller workers tend to have more education, and educated workers tend to work in more lucrative occupations that require brain and social skills, not brawn. The unexplained share of the height earnings premium reflects other labor market advantages of taller workers, including psycho-social dimensions. We also find a height premium in happiness, half of which simply accounts for the educational and earnings advantages of taller workers.Read less <
English Keywords
Height
cognitive skills
physical skills
childhood conditions
earnings
occupation
happiness