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Does Beauty Matter in Undergraduate Education?

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  • Deryugina, Tatyana
  • Shurchkov, Olga

Abstract

Physically attractive individuals achieve greater success in terms of earnings and status than those who are less attractive. However, much about the mechanism behind this “beauty premium” remains unknown. We use a rich dataset to shed light on its nature at the college level. We find that students judged to be more attractive perform significantly worse on standardized tests but, conditional on test scores, are not evaluated more favorably at the point of admission. Controlling for test scores, more attractive students receive marginally better grades in some cases. Finally, there is substantial beauty-based sorting into areas of study and occupations.

Suggested Citation

  • Deryugina, Tatyana & Shurchkov, Olga, 2013. "Does Beauty Matter in Undergraduate Education?," MPRA Paper 53582, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:53582
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    Cited by:

    1. Póvoa, Angela Cristiane Santos & Pech, Wesley & Viacava, Juan José Camou & Schwartz, Marcos Tadeu, 2020. "Is the beauty premium accessible to all? An experimental analysis," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    2. Adam Zylbersztejn & Zakaria Babutsidze & Nobuyuki Hanaki & Astrid Hopfensitz, 2023. "How beautiful people see the world: Cooperativeness judgments of and by beautiful people," Working Papers 2309, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    3. Chan, Ho Fai & Ulrich, Fabian & Altman, Hannah & Schmidt, Sascha L. & Schreyer, Dominik & Torgler, Benno, 2022. "Beyond performance? The importance of subjective and objective physical appearance in award nominations and receptions in football," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 271-289.
    4. LIU Xing & SIERMINSKA Eva, 2014. "Evaluating the effect of beauty on labor market outcomes: A review of the literature," LISER Working Paper Series 2014-11, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    5. David Ong, 2022. "The college admissions contribution to the labor market beauty premium," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(3), pages 491-512, July.
    6. Todd R. Jones & Joseph Price, 2017. "Information And The Beauty Premium In Political Elections," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 35(4), pages 677-683, October.
    7. Elif S. Filiz, 2022. "Does it Payoff to be Blond in a Non-Blond Neighborhood? Eye Color, Hair Color, Ethnic Composition and Starting Wages," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 122-146, January.
    8. Peng, Langchuan & Wang, Xi & Ying, Shanshan, 2020. "The heterogeneity of beauty premium in China: Evidence from CFPS," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 386-396.
    9. Oreffice, Sonia & Quintana-Domeque, Climent, 2016. "Beauty, body size and wages: Evidence from a unique data set," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 24-34.
    10. Dilmaghani, Maryam, 2020. "Beauty perks: Physical appearance, earnings, and fringe benefits," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    11. Gründler, Klaus & Potrafke, Niklas & Wochner, Timo, 2024. "The beauty premium of politicians in office," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 298-311.
    12. Deryugina, Tatyana & Shurchkov, Olga, 2015. "Now you see it, now you don’t: The vanishing beauty premium," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 331-345.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Beauty; Undergraduate Education;

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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