Body mass index and occupational attainment

In this paper I investigate the impact of body mass index (BMI) on occupational attainment in England. Using pooled cross-sectional health survey data for 1997 and 1998 I find using OLS that, conditional on a comprehensive set of individual and area covariates, BMI has a positive and significant effect on occupational attainment in males and a negative and significant effect in females. Subsequent analyses with different covariates show considerable variation in the results for males, while for females the effect of BMI is significant and negative irrespective of the covariates used. IV coefficients on the BMI measures are insignificant in all models, though I am unable to identify any endogeneity problems with respect to BMI.