Height-income association in developing countries: Evidence from 14 countries.

Area of Science:

• Socioeconomic factors
• Human capital
• Development economics

Background:

• The relationship between physical stature and economic outcomes is well-documented in developed nations.
• However, the height-income association in developing countries remains less understood.
• Existing research often does not differentiate between endowment and discrimination as causes for income disparities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the positive association between height and income in developing countries.
• To determine if income differences between shorter and taller individuals are attributable to endowments or discrimination.
• To analyze the role of discrimination in the height-income relationship within these economies.

Main Methods:

• Utilized instrumental variable regression, Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, and quantile regression analyses.
• Employed data from 45,108 respondents across 14 developing countries from the RELATE study.
• Performed quantile decomposition to analyze income disparities at different points of the income distribution.

Main Results:

• A 1 cm increase in height correlated with a 1.37% rise in real income (purchasing power parity adjusted).
• Income disparities between shorter and taller individuals were primarily explained by discrimination, not endowment differences.
• The impact of discrimination diminished at higher levels of height.

Conclusions:

• Taller individuals in developing countries tend to achieve higher incomes, even with similar characteristics to shorter individuals.
• Discrimination plays a significant role in creating income gaps based on height.
• Policy interventions may be needed to address height-based discrimination in labor markets.