Left handed people

I am left handed. I read an interesting recent study.

Our findings are quite contrary to expectations. We do not find any evidence that left-handed individuals earn less, as might be suggested by the literature which generally finds that left-handed people tend to suffer more from factors that would reduce labor productivity. On the contrary, we find that left-handed individuals with higher levels of education have higher earnings than right-handed-individuals. More specifically, among the college-educated men in our sample, those who report being lefthanded earn 15 percent more than those who report being right-handed. The size of this effect is economically and statistically significant. Interestingly, this wage differential is found for males but not for females.

On the negative side:

Numerous studies have shown that left-handed individuals have different health outcomes. For example, some studies find they have a higher rate of high blood pressure and irritable bowel syndrome but a lower rate of arthritis and ulcer. There is no convincing evidence that left-handedness was correlated with immune disorders but did find a positive correlation with schizophrenia.

Evidence as to the relationship between accident rates and handedness may be even more mixed. Higher accident rates for the left-handed are found in some studies, but not in others. However, a recent meta-analysis supports the positive correlation between handedness and accident rates.

A meta-analysis found a “small but reliable increase” of dyslexia among nonright-handed individuals.

Finally,

Gifted youth were more than twice as likely to be left-handed than those in a control group. “Non-righthanded populations are over-represented in all populations with high talent”.

It seems as if us left handed people are more likely to be either smarter or crazier than the average person. I think it is all due to us having to use sissors made for right handed people. Man, when I got my first pair of left handed sissors, life improved greatly.

For more on the paper about "Handedness and Earnings", click here.