Professors’ Beauty, Ability, and Teaching Evaluations in Italy

Michela Ponzo and Vincenzo Scoppa ()

The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 2013, vol. 13, issue 2, 811-835

Abstract: Using data from an Italian University, we relate student evaluations of teaching quality to the physical attractiveness of instructors (as evaluated by external raters using photos), controlling for a number of teacher and course characteristics. We first show that teachers’ beauty significantly affects evaluations of their teaching. We carry out a number of checks to tackle threats to internal validity: course fixed effects and individual research productivity are controlled for; an IV estimation strategy is undertaken using a second measure of beauty as an instrument; and measures of grooming and fastidiousness are introduced. Notwithstanding these controls, we find that more attractive teachers receive much better evaluations.

Keywords: beauty; discrimination; teaching quality; subjective evaluations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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DOI: 10.1515/bejeap-2012-0041

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