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The impact of attractiveness on job opportunities in Italy: a gender field experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Giovanni Busetta

    (Università di Messina)

  • Fabio Fiorillo

    (Università Politecnica delle Marche)

  • Giulio Palomba

    (Università Politecnica delle Marche)

Abstract

This paper assesses the impact of being attractive and not being native on the gender gap in the opportunity of obtaining a job in Italy. To do so, we propose a field experiment that consists in sending 9680 fictitious curricula vitae to real firms looking for employees. We estimate an Heckit model in order to consider different response from firms and then to calculate the probability to receive a callback. We show that gender gap in opportunity of receiving a callback is a very important issue and this gap is affected by interaction with both attractiveness and not being italian natives, especially for the most qualified jobs.

Suggested Citation

  • Giovanni Busetta & Fabio Fiorillo & Giulio Palomba, 2021. "The impact of attractiveness on job opportunities in Italy: a gender field experiment," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(1), pages 171-201, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:epolit:v:38:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s40888-020-00194-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s40888-020-00194-5
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Beauty premium; Racial discrimination; Gender gap; Experimental economics;
    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
    • J78 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Public Policy (including comparable worth)

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