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Weight, attractiveness, and gender when hiring: A field experiment in Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Goulão, Catarina
  • Lacomba, Juan Antonio
  • Lagos, Francisco
  • Rooth, Dan-Olof

Abstract

Being overweight or obese is associated with lower employment and earnings, possibly arising from employer discrimination. A few studies have used field experiments to show that obese job applicants are, in fact, discriminated against in the hiring process. However, whether overweight job applicants also face employer discrimination is still an open question. To this end, we have designed a correspondence testing experiment in which fictitious applications are sent to real job openings across twelve different occupations in the Spanish labor market. We compare the callback rate for applications with a facial photo of a normal weight person to the one for applications with a photo of the same person manipulated into looking overweight.

Suggested Citation

  • Goulão, Catarina & Lacomba, Juan Antonio & Lagos, Francisco & Rooth, Dan-Olof, 2024. "Weight, attractiveness, and gender when hiring: A field experiment in Spain," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 132-145.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:218:y:2024:i:c:p:132-145
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2023.11.028
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Obesity; Overweight; Gender; Attractiveness; Hiring; Correspondence testing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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