Life at the top: the benefits of height

NBER Working Paper No. 15090

Issued in June 2009

NBER Program(s):Economics of Aging, Health Care



According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index daily poll of the US population, taller people live better lives, at least on average. They evaluate their lives more favorably, and they are more likely to report a range of positive emotions such as enjoyment and happiness. They are also less likely to report a range of negative experiences, like sadness, and physical pain, though they are more likely to experience stress and anger, and if they are women, to worry. These findings cannot be attributed to different demographic or ethnic characteristics of taller people, but are almost entirely explained by the positive association between height and both income and education, both of which are positively linked to better lives.

Acknowledgments

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Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w15090

Published: Deaton, Angus & Arora, Raksha, 2009. "Life at the top: The benefits of height," Economics and Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 133-136, July. citation courtesy of

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