¿Tener obesidad es realmente una desventaja en el mercado laboral mexicano? Is being obese really a disadvantage in the Mexican labor market?

Martha Claudia Rodríguez-Villalobos; Erick Rangel-González

doi:10.29105/ensayos34.2-2

Authors

Martha Claudia Rodríguez-Villalobos Universidad de Monterrey
Erick Rangel-González Banco de México y Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29105/ensayos34.2-2

Keywords:

Obesity, Overweight, Wages, Employment, Selection Bias

Abstract

The present study analyzes the possible impact for a person of having obesity or overweight in the Mexican labor market. In specific, this article focuses the analysis studying the impact of these conditions, over wages and over the probability of finding a job, using two measures of obesity: the body mass index and the waist-height ratio. The results show, that once the selectivity bias is taken into consideration, for men there are no wage differentials neither in favor nor against men with obesity or overweight. We found evidence of wage differentials in favor of women with obesity and overweight in some groups (in certain education levels). For employment, we do not find difference in the probabilities of employment among the analyzed groups, once that we control for the possibility of gaining weight after being employed.

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Author Biographies

Martha Claudia Rodríguez-Villalobos, Universidad de Monterrey

Universidad de Monterrey. Dirección: Juan Ramón Jiménez 2106, Col. Contry Sol. Monterrey, N.L. C.P. 67173. Teléfonos: 83177133 y 0448112274198

Erick Rangel-González, Banco de México y Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

Banco de México, Dirección General de Investigación Económica y Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León. Dirección: Edificio Torre XI Av. Pedro Ramírez Vázquez 200-11, Piso 7 Local D, Col. Valle Oriente, San Pedro Garza García C.P. 66269 Tel: 52 81 83421292.

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