Princeton University economists find taller people tend to earn more than shorter people
By: Hilary Parker
Maybe there is a simple explanation for the long-documented phenomenon that taller people tend to earn more than shorter people.
They’re smarter.
Such is the suggestion made by Princeton University economists Anne Case and Christina Paxson in "Stature and status: Height, ability, and labor market outcomes," a working paper issued in August by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
"Taller people earn more on average, because they are smarter on average," the economists wrote.
The reason taller people are smarter, however, is slightly more complicated.
Height is controlled by a variety of factors, both genetic and environmental, including the prenatal environment, early childhood nutrition and general health between birth and age 3. For their statistical analysis, the researchers used a U.S. National Health Interview Survey and two British cohort studies that included height and childhood cognitive test score data.
"Take two kids whose parents are the same height," Ms. Paxson offered by way of an explanation. "If one of those children is shorter, on average, the taller child will do a little better on cognitive tests."
Since they controlled for the genetic influence on height, Ms. Paxson said, the implication is that the driving factors behind the cognitive difference are environmental.
Regardless of their true meaning, the results and implications have been somewhat misunderstood since the paper’s publication, Ms. Paxson said.
"I think a lot of the misunderstandings about this paper have come from people thinking we’re talking about something to do with genetics," she said. "We don’t have any reasons to believe that children who are short for reasons of heredity, on average," are less intelligent. Rather, she said, the "environmental component of height is what’s driving this correlation."
This indicates that prenatal and early childhood health and nutrition are of the utmost importance, she said, even in a wealthy country like the United States. And it certainly doesn’t mean that all is lost for those who grew up in a less-than-ideal environment.
"People thought we were saying if children score poorly at age 5, then they’re doomed to a life of low economic status," Ms. Paxson said. "That’s not true, and it could be less true than it is with the right interventions."
Looking toward the future, the collaborators will turn their attention to the relationship between height and cognitive ability later in life, with height potentially serving as a marker of early childhood nutrition. It has already been observed that taller people tend to be healthier throughout their lives, Ms. Paxson explained, but more research is necessary into its relationship with cognitive decline. The Health and Retirement Study an ongoing survey of over 22,000 Americans who are more than 50 years old will be used in the future analysis.
The response to the recent study has included disappointment from some, worried that the results might reinforce societal biases against shorter people. Much of the problem has stemmed from the publicity of the results, Ms. Paxson said, rather than the findings themselves. From an economics standpoint, the real meat of the study is in the fact that smarter people tend to earn more than those who are less intelligent, she said.
"If you read the results of this study correctly, it says employers shouldn’t be looking at height, they should be looking at real ability," she said.

