The association between chronotype and wages at mid-age
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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
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Date
2023-08
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Language
en
Pages
13
Series
Economics and Human Biology, Volume 50
Abstract
Sleep has been shown to affect economic outcomes, including wages. The mechanisms by which sleep affects wages remain unclear. We examine the relationship between chronotype – morning larks, evening owls – and wages at mid-age. We propose a novel model relating chronotype to wages in consideration of human, social, and health capital constructs. Empirically, we explore the effects of chronotype mediated through life course choices, such as work experience, trust, and health behaviour. The data come from the 46-year-old follow-up study of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort (1966) and from registers of the Finnish Tax Administration. We find evening chronotype to have a significant indirect negative effect on wages, which occurs through accumulating less work experience and through poor health outcomes. The effect is largest for male workers, with a total indirect effect on average wages of − 4%. We also provide evidence that chronotype has a long-term association with wages between 29 and 50 years of age. We conclude that evening-type workers are less suited to typical working hours and accumulate less human, social and health capital which in turn negatively affects their wages. Our findings are of great socio-economic importance because evening chronotypes make up a significant part of the population.Description
Funding Information: We thank all cohort members and researchers who participated in the 46y study. We also wish to acknowledge the work of the NFBC project center. NFBC1966 received financial support from University of Oulu Grant no. 24000692 , Oulu University Hospital Grant no. 24301140 , ERDF European Regional Development Fund Grant no. 539/2010 A31592 . Conlin thanks OP Group Research Foundation for personal research grants. We thank editor Jörg Baten and two anonymous referees for valuable comments. We also thank participants at the Finnish Society for Health Economics - Health Economics Day 2022 for feedback. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors
Keywords
Birth cohort, Chronotype, Health capital, Human capital, Social capital, Wage determination
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Citation
Conlin, A, Nerg, I, Ala-Mursula, L, Räihä, T & Korhonen, M 2023, ' The association between chronotype and wages at mid-age ', Economics and Human Biology, vol. 50, 101266 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101266