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Mirror, mirror on the wall: The effect of time spent grooming on wages

Author

Listed:
  • Jayoti Das

    (Department of Economics, Elon University)

  • Stephen B. DeLoach

    (Department of Economics, Elon University)

Abstract

It is well understood that personal grooming provides an important source of communication about individuals, their values and personalities. From an economic point of view, grooming is a non-market activity. The standard view is that time spent in non-market activities is counterproductive as it reduces work effort and job commitment. But grooming is different. There is reason to believe that certain productive personality traits may be inferred on the basis of personal grooming. Using data from the American Time Use survey, we investigate whether workers who spend more time grooming earn higher wages. The evidence shows that while higher levels of grooming time increases wages for men, there is no significant effect on women’s wages. We also find evidence that the returns to grooming are even larger for minority males.

Suggested Citation

  • Jayoti Das & Stephen B. DeLoach, 2008. "Mirror, mirror on the wall: The effect of time spent grooming on wages," Working Papers 2008-01, Elon University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:elo:wpaper:2008-01
    as

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    File URL: http://org.elon.edu/econ/WPS/wp2008-01r2.pdf
    File Function: Revised version, 2009-06-08
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. The American Time Use Survey and Economic Imperialism?
      by Dan Hirschman in A (Budding) Sociologist's Commonplace Book on 2008-03-01 03:13:00
    2. Men, start grooming!
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2008-01-17 14:08:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Josheski, Dushko, 2014. "Personnel Economics essay: Issues in Human Capital Theory, training and earnings of workers," EconStor Preprints 90913, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination

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