Alan Blinder famously spoofed the economics of brushing teeth (here, JSTOR only).  A. Wuffle also offered a rational choice perspective on the subject [pdf]. Well, mock ye not! A new NBER paper shows that good teeth boost the income of women by 4 per cent. The NBER version is here.  Abstract:

Healthy teeth are a vital and visible component of general well-being, but there is little systematic evidence to demonstrate their economic value. In this paper, we examine one element of that value, the effect of oral health on labor market outcomes, by exploiting variation in access to fluoridated water during childhood. The politics surrounding the adoption of water fluoridation by local water districts suggests exposure to fluoride during childhood is exogenous to other factors affecting earnings. We find that women who resided in communities with fluoridated water during childhood earn approximately 4% more than women who did not, but we find no effect of fluoridation for men. Furthermore, the effect is almost exclusively concentrated amongst women from families of low socioeconomic status. We find little evidence to support occupational sorting, statistical discrimination, and productivity as potential channels of these effects, suggesting consumer and employer discrimination are the likely driving factors whereby oral health affects earnings.

Yes, this is April 1, but the paper is dated March.

April 1st, 2008 in Research | Permalink