Volume 31, Number 2 (Spring) 1996
Averett, Susan, and Sanders Korenman. 1996. "The Economic Reality of the Beauty Myth." Journal of Human Resources 31(2): 304-330.
We investigate income, marital status, and hourly pay differentials by body mass (kg/m2) in a sample of 23- to 31-year-olds drawn from the 1988 NLSY. Obese women have lower family incomes than women whose weight-for-height is in the ‘‘recommended’’ range, Results for men are weaker and mixed, We find similar results when we compare same-sex siblings in order to control for family back ground (for example, social class) differences. Differences in economic status by body mass for women increase markedly when we use an earlier weight mea-sure or restrict the sample to persons who were single and childless when the early weight was reported. There is some evidence of labor market discrimination against obese women. Differences in marriage probabilities and spouse’s earnings, however, account for 50 to 95 percent of their lower economic status. There is little evidence that obese African American women suffer an economic penalty relative to other African American women.
Susan Averett is an assistant professor of economics and business at Lafayette College (Penn.): Sanders Korenman is an associate professor of public affairs at the University of Minnesota. The authors thank Dennis Ahlburg, Ted Joyce, Robert Kaestner, Felicia LeClere, Samuel L. Myers, Jr., Cordelia Reimers, and seminar participants at Lafayette College, Princeton University, and the University of Minnesota for their comments. Deborah Campbell provided outstanding research assistance. The authors take responsibility for all errors. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning in August 1996 through July 1999 from Susan Averett, Department of Economics and Business, Lafayette College, Easton, PA 18042.
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US ISSN 0022-166X