Economics Commons^™

Obesity And Physical Fitness In The Labor Market, Roy Wada

Economics Dissertations

Mixed results have been reported when body size is used to estimate the effect of health and nutritional status on worker productivity. This dissertation offers an alternative hypothesis that body composition rather than body size is responsible for the effects of health and nutritional status on worker productivity. Body fat is responsible for the poor health associated with obesity. Lean body mass is responsible for the superior performance associated with physical fitness. Studies using body size alone cannot distinguish the combined, but opposite effects, of body fat and lean body mass. A method is provided here that overcomes the lack …