Econometric Decomposition
America's Obesity Wage Penalty Workbench
Empirical labor economics simulation of weight penalties by gender, occupation, and econometric specification
Benchmark Case
Male Comparison
Executive Role
Reset
Model Parameters
NBER / CPS Linked
Gender Cohort
Female (High Empirical Penalty)
Male (Modest / Low Penalty)
BMI Category
Normal Weight (BMI 18.5 - 24.9)
Overweight (BMI 25.0 - 29.9)
Obese Class I (BMI 30.0 - 34.9)
Obese Class II+ (BMI 35.0+)
Occupational Track
Client-Facing Professional (High Visibility)
Technical / Non-Client Specialist
Service & Customer Retail
Manual & Industrial
Econometric Identification Method
Pooled OLS (Cross-Sectional Naive)
Sibling Fixed Effects (Within-Family)
Instrumental Variables (Biological IV)
Baseline Hourly Wage ($/hr)
$32.50
Years of Experience
10 yrs
Methodology Note:
Sibling fixed effects isolate obesity wage loss within sibling pairs, eliminating unobserved family background confounders.
Estimated Penalty
-8.4%
95% CI: [-11.2%, -5.6%]
Adjusted Hourly Wage
$29.77
from $32.50 base
Annual Wage Loss
$5,678
based on 2,080 annual hrs
Gender Differential
+6.8%
Female vs. Male Gap
Career 30-Yr Loss
$142,850
NPV discounted at 2.5%
Wage Distribution Density Shift (D3)
Cumulative Career Trajectory (30 Years)
Econometric Model Decomposition & Specification Robustness
Econometric Model
Female Penalty
Male Penalty
Gender Asymmetry
Estimated Hourly ($)
Identification Control
Data source: NBER / AER empirical synthesis on physical appearance & wage penalties.
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