Abstract
This article investigates the excess-weight penalty in income for men and women in the Swedish labor market, using longitudinal data. It compares two identification strategies, OLS and individual fixed effects, and distinguishes between two main sources of excess-weight penalties, lower productivity because of bad health and discrimination. For men, the analysis finds a significant obesity penalty related to discrimination when applying individual fixed effects. We do not find any significant excess-weight penalty for women.
Highlights
Obesity rates in Western countries over the past 30 years have increased rapidly [1], and Sweden is not an exception: In Sweden, the share of overweight and obese among men aged 16–84 years has increased from 30 % to more thanM
We find no indication of income differences due to overweight for women
The analysis shows that the obesity penalty is relatively insensitive to controls for health using both identification strategies, a relationship that indicates that health-related productivity reductions do not drive the results
Summary
Obesity rates in Western countries over the past 30 years have increased rapidly [1], and Sweden is not an exception: In Sweden, the share of overweight and obese among men aged 16–84 years has increased from 30 % to more than. Nordin Health Economics and Management, Institute of Economic Research, Lund University, P.O. Box 7080, 220 07 Lund, Sweden. Gerdtham Centre for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
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