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The Beauty Premium of Politicians in Office

Author

Listed:
  • Klaus Gründler
  • Niklas Potrafke
  • Timo Wochner

Abstract

The beauty premium in politics shows that attractive politicians are more likely to get elected to ofce than less attractive politicians, but little is known about whether beauty also shapes the behavior of members of parliament (MPs) once in ofce. We use newly collected data on the attractiveness and parliamen tary activity of 866 MPs in the German Bundestag over the period 2009-2017 to examine the link between beauty and parliamentary work. Our results show that attractive MPs are more likely to be absent from parliament and less active in labor-intensive background work than others. Consistent with our hypothesis of higher outside earnings and appear more often on television talk shows. Our results suggest that attractive MPs re-allocate their time from parliamentary work to other activity that increases their income and popularity.

Suggested Citation

  • Klaus Gründler & Niklas Potrafke & Timo Wochner, 2023. "The Beauty Premium of Politicians in Office," ifo Working Paper Series 404, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ifowps:_404
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    attractiveness of politicians; parliamentary activity; members of parliament; political economy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • J70 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - General
    • K40 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - General

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