Lundborg Petter, Bolin Kristian, Höjgård Sören, Lindgren Björn
Department of Economics, Free University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Adv Health Econ Health Serv Res. 2007;17:219-51.
This paper brings a European perspective to the mainly U.S.-based literature on the relationship between obesity and labour-market outcomes. Using micro-data on workers aged 50 and over from the newly developed SHARE database, the effects of obesity on employment, hours worked, and wages across 10 European countries were analysed. Pooling all countries, the results showed that being obese was associated with a significantly lower probability of being employed for both women and men. Moreover, the results showed that obese European women earned 10% less than their non-obese counterparts. For men, however, the effect was smaller in size and insignificant. Taking health status into account, obese women still earned 9% less. No significant effect of obesity on hours worked was obtained, however. Regressions by country-group revealed that the effects of obesity differed across Europe. For instance, the effect of obesity on employment was greatest for men in southern and central Europe, while women in central Europe faced the greatest wage penalty. The results in this study suggest that the ongoing rise in the prevalence of obesity in Europe may have a non-negligible effect on the European labour market.
本文从欧洲视角审视了主要基于美国文献的肥胖与劳动力市场结果之间的关系。利用新开发的SHARE数据库中50岁及以上工人的微观数据，分析了肥胖对10个欧洲国家就业、工作时长和工资的影响。汇总所有国家的数据后，结果显示，肥胖与男性和女性就业概率显著降低相关。此外，结果表明，肥胖的欧洲女性比非肥胖女性收入低10%。然而，对于男性来说，这种影响规模较小且不显著。考虑到健康状况，肥胖女性的收入仍低9%。不过，未发现肥胖对工作时长有显著影响。按国家组进行的回归分析表明，肥胖的影响在欧洲各国有所不同。例如，肥胖对就业的影响在南欧和中欧男性中最大，而中欧女性面临的工资惩罚最大。本研究结果表明，欧洲肥胖患病率的持续上升可能对欧洲劳动力市场产生不可忽视的影响。
