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Beauty and job accessibility: new evidence from a field experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Weiguang Deng

    (Hunan University)

  • Dayang Li

    (University of California)

  • Dong Zhou

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

Abstract

This study uses a field experiment to resolve the difficulties of quantifying personal appearance and identify a direct causal relationship between appearance and employment in China. The experiment reveals that taste-based pure appearance discrimination exists at the pre-interview stage. There are significant gender-specific heterogeneous effects of education on appearance discrimination: having better educational credentials reduces appearance discrimination among men but not among women. Moreover, attributes of the labor market, companies, and vacancies matter. Beauty premiums are larger in big cities with higher concentrations of women and in male-focused research positions. Similarly, the beauty premium is larger for vacancies with higher remuneration.

Suggested Citation

  • Weiguang Deng & Dayang Li & Dong Zhou, 2020. "Beauty and job accessibility: new evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 1303-1341, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:33:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s00148-019-00744-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s00148-019-00744-7
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    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Junsen & Fei, Shulan & Wen, Yanbing, 2023. "How Does the Beauty of Wives Affect Post-marriage Family Outcomes? Helen's Face in Chinese Households," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 122-137.
    2. Zhang, Junsen & Fei, Shulan & Wen, Yanbing, 2023. "How Does the Beauty of Wives Affect Post-Marriage Family Outcomes? Helen's Face in Chinese Households," IZA Discussion Papers 16157, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Cai, Guowei & Deng, Weiguang & Li, Xue, 2023. "Student leadership experience and job accessibility: An experiment from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

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