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Triple penalty in employment access : the role of beauty, race, and sex

Author

Listed:
  • Francisco Galarza

    (Universidad del Pacífico)

  • Gustavo Yamada

    (Universidad del Pacífico)

Abstract

We investigate the role of physical appearance, in addition to race and sex, in the rate of discrimination observed in the labour market of Lima. Our experimental design allows us to disentangle the effect of each of those three variables on the callback rates received by our fictitious job candidates. Since we are controlling for variables that are important in the selection process (mainly, education and job experience), our results provide better indicators of discrimination than the ones we could obtain through the econometric analysis of observational data. We find that discrimination based on looks is greater than that based on race or sex. The first two types of discrimination are in professional and unskilled jobs.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco Galarza & Gustavo Yamada, 2012. "Triple penalty in employment access : the role of beauty, race, and sex," Working Papers 12-13, Centro de Investigación, Universidad del Pacífico.
    • Handle: RePEc:pai:wpaper:12-13
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Galarza, Francisco B. & Yamada, Gustavo, 2014. "Labor Market Discrimination in Lima, Peru: Evidence from a Field Experiment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 83-94.
    2. Hamermesh, Daniel S., 2006. "Changing looks and changing "discrimination": The beauty of economists," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 405-412, December.
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    7. Moreno, Martín & Ñopo, Hugo & Saavedra, Jaime & Torero, Máximo, 2012. "Detecting Gender and Racial Discrimination in Hiring Through Monitoring Intermediation Services: The Case of Selected Occupations in Metropolitan Lima, Peru," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 315-328.
    8. List, John A. & Rasul, Imran, 2011. "Field Experiments in Labor Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 2, pages 103-228, Elsevier.
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    17. Biddle, Jeff E & Hamermesh, Daniel S, 1998. "Beauty, Productivity, and Discrimination: Lawyers' Looks and Lucre," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 172-201, January.
    18. Banerjee, Abhijit & Bertrand, Marianne & Datta, Saugato & Mullainathan, Sendhil, 2009. "Labor market discrimination in Delhi: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 14-27, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Bedi, Arjun S. & Majilla, Tanmoy & Rieger, Matthias, 2018. "Gender Norms and the Motherhood Penalty: Experimental Evidence from India," IZA Discussion Papers 11360, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Gaddis, S. Michael, 2018. "An Introduction to Audit Studies in the Social Sciences," SocArXiv e5hfc, Center for Open Science.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor market; sex; race; surnames; beauty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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