Влияние избыточного веса на заработную плату россиян

Вопросы статистики. 2025. Т. 32. № 1. С. 51–63.

Deeva A.

This paper examines the impact of Body Mass Index (BMI) on individual earnings. The study aims to determine whether there is weight–wage discrimination against individuals with higher BMI levels in the Russian labor market, resulting in lower wages, all other things being equal.

The distinctive feature of this study is that the author analyzed the results of representative annual population surveys using regression analysis methods, allowing control for potential reverse causality between BMI and wages. The research used a panel dataset of officially employed respondents from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey collected by HSE University (RLMS–HSE) from 2013 to 2022. To address the endogeneity problem in studying the relationship between BMI and wages and to obtain consistent estimates of regression coefficients, the paper employs the instrumental variable (IV) method, which relies on the heteroscedasticity of residuals.

The findings indicate that the wages of overweight or obese workers are significantly lower than those of normal-weight employees. Thus, an individual's BMI, in addition to other socio-economic and demographic characteristics, can be considered a factor affecting the wages of Russians.

Keywords: заработная плата, регрессионный анализ, эндогенность, endogeneity, wage, BMI, ИМТ, regression analysis, two-stage least squares (TSLS) model, Lewbel's method, двухшаговый метод наименьших квадратов, метод Льюбела

Publication based on the results of: The Impact of External Shocks and Restrictions on the Strategies of Economic Agents in the Context of the New Reality (2025)