Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008;116(3):499-532.
doi: 10.1086/589524.

Stature and status: Height, ability, and labor market outcomes

Anne Case  1 , Christina Paxson
Affiliations

Stature and status: Height, ability, and labor market outcomes

Anne Case et al. J Polit Econ. 2008.

Abstract

The well-known association between height and earnings is often thought to reflect factors such as self esteem, social dominance, and discrimination. We offer a simpler explanation: height is positively associated with cognitive ability, which is rewarded in the labor market. Using data from the US and the UK, we show that taller children have higher average cognitive test scores, and that these test scores explain a large portion of the height premium in earnings. Children who have higher test scores also experience earlier adolescent growth spurts, so that height in adolescence serves as a marker of cognitive ability.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Heights Across Occupations, Men
Figure 2
Figure 2
Log Earnings and Height, Men and Women
Figure 3
Figure 3
Growth Velocity for Boys in the US, Centimeters Per Year SOURCE: Center for Disease Control (1977)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abbott Robert D, White Lon R, Ross G. Webster, Petrovitch Helen, Masaki Kamal H, Snowdon David A, Curb J. David. Height as a Marker of Childhood Development and Late-life Cognitive Function: The Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. Pediatrics. 1998 September;102:602–609. - PubMed
    1. Almond Douglas. Is the 1918 Influenza Pandemic Over? Long-Term Effects of In Utero Influenza Exposure in the Post-1940 U.S. Population. Journal of Political Economy. 2006 August;114:672–712.
    1. Beard Albertine S, Blaser Martin J. The Ecology of Height: The Effect of Microbial Transmission on Human Height. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 2002 Autumn;45:475–499. - PubMed
    1. Behrman Jere R, Rosenzweig Mark R. Returns to Birthweight. Review of Economics and Statistics. 2004 May;86:586–601.
    1. Berger Abi. Insulin-Like Growth Factor and Cognitive Function. BMJ. 2001 January 27;322:203. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources