PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Huang, Wei AU - Liu, Elaine M. AU - Zuppann, C. Andrew TI - Relative Obesity and the Formation of Noncognitive Abilities during Adolescence AID - 10.3368/jhr.58.2.1018-9812R2 DP - 2022 Nov 01 TA - Journal of Human Resources PG - 2086--2112 VI - 57 IP - 6 4099 - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/57/6/2086.short 4100 - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/57/6/2086.full SO - J Hum Resour2022 Nov 01; 57 AB - We study the role of relative childhood and adolescent obesity in the development of noncognitive abilities. We employ a novel identification strategy, utilizing the fact that one’s body size is a relative concept and there are large variations in body sizes across MSAs. We focus on children who move between MSAs. Controlling for origin–destination state pair fixed effects, we find that a ten percentile point increase in relative body size would increase behavioral problems by two percentile points. This effect is of a similar magnitude to a two-year reduction in maternal education.