INFLUENCE OF OBESITY AND OVERWEIGHT ON LABOUR MARKET OUTCOMES ACROSS NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES – THE CASE OF ELDERLY PEOPLE

Sammanfattning: This essay investigates influence of obesity on labour market outcomes – earnings per hour and hours worked per week - across two geographical groups of European countries in a sample of elderly people of 50 years old and over. A method of lagged BMI with control for unobserved country specific effects is used. Results obtained are statistically insignificant, which could be due to a small sample and limitations of an empirical method. More countries and respondents should be included into dataset and special attention should be paid to body weight indicators of elderly people. Hence, further research in this area is required.