Sorting by Height: Education and Economic Outcomes of Women in Less-Developed Countries

Taller height is commonly found to correlate with educational and economic outcomes. Most studies focus on a relationship to earnings, and consider samples from individual countries. This paper takes a broader view by evaluating the associations between height, education, and economic outcomes in a pooled sample of women from 63 less-developed countries. Height is shown to have a generalised association to school participation, years of schooling, type of occupation, and relative household wealth. Women in countries with shorter average heights, greater urbanisation, and higher GDP per capita exhibit stronger height associations to education and wealth. These characteristics are generally reflective of Latin American and South/Southeast Asian countries relative to sub-Saharan Africa. The results are discussed in the context of early-childhood circumstances that affect both physical and cognitive development, which have lasting influences on adult outcomes.