The labor market return to physical fitness and leisure sports activities
an article by Dan-Olof Rooth (Linnaeus University, Sweden; Lund University, Sweden; IZA, Germany and CReAM, United Kingdom) published in Labour Economics Volume 18 Issue 3 (June 2011)
Abstract
This study is the first to present evidence of the return to leisure sports in the job hiring process by sending fictitious applications to real job openings in the Swedish labour market. In the field experiment job applicants were randomly given different information about their type and level of leisure sports. Applicants who signalled sports skills had a significantly higher callback rate of about 2 percentage points, and this effect was about twice as large for physically demanding occupations.
Additional evidence of a sports premium in the regular labour market is arrived at when analysing the long-run impact of physical fitness on later labour market outcomes. The analysis uses register data on adult earnings and physical fitness when enlisting at age 18. The fitness premium, net of unobservable family variables, is in the order of 4–5%, but diminishes to 2% when controlling for non-cognitive skills.
Hazel’s comment:
Rule number one (thou shalt not read more of an article than is necessary to decide whether or not to blog about it) got broken on this one! Following on from the headlines in national media in the UK which say that more attractive people get better jobs now there’s this which says that the fitter you are the more likely it is that you will get hired.
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