Do looks matter for an academic career in economics?

Galina Hale, Tali Regev and Yona Rubinstein

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We show that physical appearance plays a role in the success of economics PhD graduates and investigate the underlying mechanisms driving this relationship. Leveraging a unique dataset of career and research productivity trajectories of PhD graduates from leading economics departments in the United States, we provide robust evidence that appearance is a predictive factor for both research productivity and job placement. Our analysis goes beyond establishing the association between attractiveness and success within the profession. By jointly examining appearance, job outcome, and research productivity, as well as the longitudinal development of the latter two over time, we show that the effect of appearance can be partially, but not fully, attributed to its role as a predictor of research productivity, with the remainder of the effect reflecting an intrinsic demand for attractiveness.

Keywords: appearance; beauty; economists; statistical discrimination; taste discrimination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 J50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 15 pages
Date: 2023-11-01
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Published in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 1, November, 2023, 215, pp. 406 - 420. ISSN: 0167-2681

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:120508

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