Beauty and job accessibility: new evidence from a field experiment

Deng, Weiguang; Li, Dayang; Zhou, Dong

doi:10.1007/s00148-019-00744-7

Cited by 24 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…However, their unemployment rates are slightly lower than men's. 2 There is similar prima facie evidence of discrimination in other countries for groups that are the focus of experimental work on discrimination. For example, there are lower employment rates for indigenous people and immigrant groups in Australia, although these become smaller and insignificant with controls for language proficiency and schooling (Booth, Leigh, and Varganova 2012), and many studies of Europe (including some in the references, such as Bartolucci 2014, andBlommaert, Coenders, andvan Tubergen 2014) document lower earnings and employment for minorities or immigrants.…”

Section: Race Ethnicity and Sexmentioning

confidence: 91%

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Experimental Research on Labor Market Discrimination

Neumark

2018

Journal of Economic Literature

386

172

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Understanding whether labor market discrimination explains inferior labor market outcomes for many groups has drawn the attention of labor economists for decades— at least since the publication of Gary Becker’s The Economics of Discrimination in 1957. The decades of research on discrimination in labor markets began with a regression-based “decomposition” approach, asking whether raw wage or earnings differences between groups—which might constitute prima facie evidence of discrimination—were in fact attributable to other productivity-related factors. Subsequent research—responding in large part to limitations of the regression-based approach—moved on to other approaches, such as using firm-level data to estimate both marginal productivity and wage differentials. In recent years, however, there has been substantial growth in experimental research on labor market discrimination—although the earliest experiments were done decades ago. Some experimental research on labor market discrimination takes place in the lab. But far more of it is done in the field, which makes this particular area of experimental research unique relative to the explosion of experimental economic research more generally. This paper surveys the full range of experimental literature on labor market discrimination, places it in the context of the broader research literature on labor market discrimination, discusses the experimental literature from many different perspectives (empirical, theoretical, and policy), and reviews both what this literature has taught us thus far, and what remains to be done. (JEL C93, J14, J15, J16, J23, J41, J71)

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Section: Race Ethnicity and Sexmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…"Sex Discrimination in Simulated Employment Contexts: A Meta-analytic Investigation." Journal of Vocational Behavior 56 (2): 225-48. Devine, Patricia G. 1989.…”

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confidence: 99%

Experimental Research on Labor Market Discrimination

Neumark

2018

Journal of Economic Literature

386

172

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“…4 This college admissions contribution may help explain the surprisingly greater labor market beauty premium for men in the US, and why it does not vary across jobs with significant and insignificant exposure to customers. Our evidence suggests that the labor market beauty premium for men and women in China (Deng, Li, and Zhou 2019;Gu and Ji 2019;Hamermesh, Meng, and Zhang 2002;Maurer-Fazio and Lei 2015) and for women and non-Whites of both genders in the US may arise after college. Our results suggest the potential importance of controlling not only for the years of education in future studies of the labor market beauty premium, but also for the rank of the college attended, particularly for men.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 73%

The College Admissions Contribution to the Labor Market Beauty Premium

Ong

Man

Zhang³

2020

SSRN Journal

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Beautiful people earn more. Surprisingly, this premium is larger for men than for women and is independent of the degree of customer contact. Overlooked is the possibility that beauty can influence college admissions. We explore this academic contributor to the labor market beauty earnings premium by sampling 1,800 social media profiles of students from universities ranked from 1 to 200 in China and the US. Chinese universities use only standardized test scores for admissions. In contrast, US universities use also grades and extracurricular activities, which are not necessarily beauty-blind. Consistent with beauty-blind admissions, student's beauty is uncorrelated with the rank of their college in China. In the US, White men from higher ranked colleges are better-looking. As expected, the correlation is insignificant for White men who attended tech colleges and is highest for those who attended private colleges. We also find that White women and minorities of either gender are not better-looking at higher ranked colleges. Our evidence indicates a college admissions contribution to the labor market beauty premium for US White men, but not for students in China of either gender, White women, or minorities of either gender in the US, or for White men who attended technology colleges.

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“…This college admissions contribution may help explain the surprisingly greater labor market beauty premium for men in the US, and why it does not vary across jobs according to exposure to customers. Our evidence suggests that the labor market beauty premium for men and women in China (Deng et al, 2019;Gu & Ji, 2019;Hamermesh et al, 2002;Ling et al, 2019;Maurer-Fazio & Lei, 2015;Peng et al, 2019) and women and non-Whites of both genders in the US may arise after college. Our results, additionally, suggest the potential importance of controlling not only for the years of education in future studies of the labor market beauty premium but also for the rank of the college attended, particularly for men in the US.…”

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confidence: 77%

The college admissions contribution to the labor market beauty premium

Ong¹,

Man²,

Zhang³

2022

Contemporary Economic Policy

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We investigate the contribution of college admissions to the labor market beauty premium. We sampled 1800 social media profiles of students from universities ranked from 1 to 200 in China and the US. Chinese universities use standardized test scores for admissions. US universities use also extracurricular activities. Consistent with beauty‐blind admissions, alumni's beauty is uncorrelated with the rank of the school they attended in China. In the US, White men who attended high‐ranked schools are better looking, especially attendees of private schools. A one percentage point increase in beauty rank corresponds to a half‐point increase in the school rank.

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Beauty and job accessibility: new evidence from a field experiment

Cited by 24 publications

References 43 publications

Experimental Research on Labor Market Discrimination

Experimental Research on Labor Market Discrimination

The College Admissions Contribution to the Labor Market Beauty Premium

The college admissions contribution to the labor market beauty premium

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