HEIGHT PREMIUM FOR JOB PERFORMANCE

Background: People care physical appearance of their own and others. Height is a relatively objective measure for physical appearance. Previous studies report better labor market performances particularly wages for taller individuals aside from ability. Majority of those studies are conducted in developed countries with relatively less investigations based on developing countries particularly in Asia.

Methods: We use the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) from 1998 and 2009, and the final sample includes 15,051 person-year observations for men and 28,114 for women between 20 and 65 years of age with valid information for all covariates. The dependent variables are wages, the total number of fringe benefits, satisfaction with job security, and satisfaction with the potential for advancement. The key independent variable is height measured as in centimeters. We control for family members’ average height and permanent characteristics of household and individuals via individual- and household-level fixed effects model.

Results: Height wage premium among women appears only at height < 160 cm (1.3% higher hourly wages with a unit increase of height), whereas an opposite relationship is found at height ≥ 160 cm (0.9% lower hourly wages with a unit increase of height). For men, height wage premium appeared only at height < 171 cm (2.0% higher hourly wages with a unit increase of height), whereas height wage penalty was estimated at height ≥ 171 cm (0.5% lower wages with a unit increase of height). However, height premium for fringe benefits was minimal and appeared only at height ≥ 160 cm (by 0.019 more fringe benefits with a unit increase of height) among women and at height < 171 cm (by 0.011 as one centimeter increase of height) among men. The relationship of height with subjective satisfaction with job performances show mixed direction among women with lower satisfaction with job security among non-short women (by 1.6 percentage points) but with higher satisfaction with opportunity for advancement (by 1.1 percentage points) than short women.

Discussion: Height is likely to be endogenous in its impact on labor market outcomes. Nurturing home is likely to influence individual’s human capital development as well as individual height growth. Also, if height wage premium exists and height is genetically endowed, a tall individual is likely to have tall parents who also are likely to have had height wage premium. Despite that unobserved time-varying portions can still cause endogeniety bias in the estimations, the current study control for family members’ average height and permanent characteristics of households and individuals. This study adds global evidence to the previous literature by exploring height premium in labor market using panel data in Korea.