Name length and labor market performance

Weiguang Deng and Tingwei Gao

China Economic Review, 2023, vol. 79, issue C

Abstract: We investigate the effects of individuals' name length on their labor market performance using Chinese data. The results indicate that the longer a person's name, the higher their probability of employment but the lower their income in some cases. The optimal Chinese fullname length with respect to employment probability is 3 characters. Increasing one character in fullnames increases the employment probability by 1.6 percentage point. Name length effects on income present gender, urban-rural, clan culture intensity, and age cohort heterogeneity. Further mechanism analyses indicate that name length may affect personal labor market performance by affecting evaluations by others, and formations of human and social capital. Recommendations toward neutralizing such effects and avoiding economic name-based discriminations are also discussed.

Keywords: Chinese names; Name length; Labor market performance; Discrimination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 J31 J71 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:chieco:v:79:y:2023:i:c:s1043951x23000603

DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2023.101975

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