Fat Chance! Obesity and the Transition from Unemployment to Employment

This paper focuses on estimating the magnitude of any potential weight discrimination by examining whether obese job applicants in Germany get treated or behave differently from non-obese applicants. Based on two waves of rich survey data from the IZA Evaluation dataset, which includes measures that control for education, demographic characteristics, labor market history, psychological factors and health, we estimate differences in job search behavior and labor market outcomes between obese/overweight and healthy weight individuals. Unlike other observational studies which are generally based on obese and non-obese individuals who might already be at different points in the job ladder (e.g., household surveys), in our data, individuals are newly unemployed and all start from the same point. The only subgroup we find in our data experiencing any possible form of labor market discrimination is obese women. Despite making more job applications and engaging more in job training programs, we find some indications that they experienced worse (or at best similar) employment outcomes than healthy weight women. Obese women who found a job also had significantly lower wages than healthy weight women.obesity, discrimination, employment, labor demand

Monte Carlo algorithms based on the number of potential moves

We discuss Monte Carlo dynamics based on _E, the (microcanonical) average number of potential moves which increase the energy by Delta E in a single spin flip. The microcanonical average can be sampled using Monte Carlo dynamics of a single spin flip with a transition rate min(1, _E' / _E) from energy E to E'. A cumulative average (over Monte Carlo steps) can be used as a first approximation to the exact microcanonical average in the flip rate. The associated histogram is a constant independent of the energy. The canonical distribution of energy can be obtained from the transition matrix Monte Carlo dynamics. This second dynamics has fast relaxation time - at the critical temperature the relaxation time is proportional to specific heat. The dynamics are useful in connection with reweighting methods for computing thermodynamic quantities.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, invited talk on CCP99 conference, 20-27 May 99, Atlanta, G

Height and Cognitive Function among Older Europeans: Do People from "Tall" Countries Have Superior Cognitive Abilities?

Previous research has found that height is correlated with cognitive functioning at older ages. It therefore makes sense to ask a related question: do people from countries where the average person is relatively tall have superior cognitive abilities on average? Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we find empirical evidence that this is the case, even after controlling for self-reported childhood health, self-reported childhood abilities, parental characteristics and education. We find that people from countries with relatively tall people, such as Denmark and the Netherlands, have on average superior cognitive abilities compared to people from countries with relatively shorter people, such as Italy and Spain. We exploit variations in height trends due to nutritional deprivation in World War II in Europe and use an instrumental variable analysis to further estimate the potential impact of height on cognitive function. We find some suggestive evidence that a causal link from height to cognitive outcomes could be operating via nutrition and not via educational attainment.height, cognitive function, instrumental variables, World War II

Minimum Wages and Employment: Reconsidering the Use of a Time-Series Approach as an Evaluation Tool

The time-series approach used in the minimum wage literature essentially aims to estimate a treatment effect of increasing the minimum wage. In this paper, we employ a novel approach based on aggregate time-series data that allows us to determine if minimum wage changes have significant effects on employment. This involves the use of tests for structural breaks as a device for identifying discontinuities in the data which potentially represent treatment effects. In an application based on Australian data, the tentative conclusion is that the introduction of minimum wage legislation in Australia in 1997 and subsequent minimum wage increases appear not to have had any significant negative employment effects for teenagers.structural break, teenage employment, minimum wage

Climbing the Job Ladder: New Evidence of Gender Inequity

An explanation for the gender wage gap is that women are less able or less willing to 'climb the job ladder.' However, the empirical evidence on gender differences in job mobility has been mixed. Focusing on a subsample of younger, university-educated workers from an Australian longitudinal survey, we find strong evidence that the dynamics of promotions and employer changes worsen women's labour market position.wage gap, job changes, promotions, gender

Big and Tall: Is there a Height Premium or Obesity Penalty in the Labor Market?

Previous studies have shown that both height and weight are associated with wages. However, by focusing on interpreting the partial effects of either height or weight on wages while holding all else constant, some gaps in our understanding of the complex relationship between body size and wages remain. Utilizing a semi-parametric spline approach, we first establish that a flexible analysis of height and weight provides a useful and meaningful proxy for beauty. A similar flexible analysis of height, weight and wages reveals that some combinations of anthropometric measurements attract higher wage premiums than others and that the optimal combination varies over the life cycle. A main contribution of the paper is in suggesting a novel and practical way of examining the returns to looks in the labor market based on objective anthropometric measurements

Is the BMI a Relic of the Past?

The most widely used measure of adiposity is to express weight adjusted for height using the body mass index (BMI). However, its limitations such as its inability to distinguish muscle weight from fat weight are well known, leading public health authorities in the UK and US to recommend measuring waist circumference as a complementary diagnostic tool for obesity. Recent attention placed on the syndrome referred to as 'normal weight obesity' individuals with normal BMI but high body fat content emphasizes the need for a more comprehensive diagnostic tool for obesity. Based on the NHANES III data, we utilize a semi-parametric spline approach to depict graphically the relationship between BMI, waist circumference and percent body fat. In this note, we propose that percent body fat charts that incorporate information from three anthropometric dimensions supersede the one-size-fits-all obesity diagnostic approach based on power-type indices such as the BMI

Functional renormalization group and variational Monte Carlo studies of the electronic instabilities in graphene near 1/4 doping

We study the electronic instabilities of near 1/4 electron doped graphene using the functional renormalization group (FRG) and variational Monte-Carlo method. A modified FRG implementation is utilized to improve the treatment of the von Hove singularity. At 1/4 doping the system is a chiral spin density wave state exhibiting the anomalous quantized Hall effect, or equivalently a Chern insulator. When the doping deviates from 1/4, the $d_{x^2-y^2}+i d_{xy}$ Cooper pairing becomes the leading instability. Our results suggest near 1/4 electron or hole doped graphene is a fertile playground for the search of Chern insulators and superconductors.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, with technical details, published versio

Measuring the quality of VET using the Student Outcomes Survey

The aim of this report is to examine the use of student course satisfaction information and post-study outcomes as a means of determining markers of training quality