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Abstract
This paper analyses the Indonesian Family Life Survey to show that job strenuousness is negatively related to obesity, which is largely consistent with the literature. However, this paper does not interpret the relationship as causal. Instead, efforts are made to demonstrate that the relationship is attributable to sample selection: workers with low socioeconomic status are lightweight and selected for strenuous jobs. This paper warns against reflexive applications of the conclusions derived from the developed world to the developing world. Our results imply that sedentariness at work probably plays a small role in the prevalence of obesity in the region.
Notes
1. The data are publicly available at http://www.rand.org/labor/FLS/IFLS.html; our codes are available to bona fide researchers upon request until three years after publication.
2. BMI is defined as weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in metres.
3. It is acknowledged that strenuous jobs in the developed world may not be as strenuous as those in the developing world. However, as Case and Deaton (Citation2005) argued, jobs even in the Unites States, where they are highly mechanised, are strenuous enough to adversely affect health.
4. The World Health Organisation (Citation2000b) suggested a BMI of 25kg/m2 or greater to define obesity for adult Asians (and to define overweight for adult Europeans) and a BMI of 27kg/m2 or greater specifically for adult Indonesians. Thus, obesity was defined in both ways. In IFLS4, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio are available only for respondents aged over 40; thus, analyses were conducted for respondents aged 40–65. In addition, waist-to-height ratio is not considered in this paper because height is included in X and waist circumference is separately considered.