The Labor Market Return to an Attractive Face: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Florencia Lopez Boo, Martín Rossi and Sergio Urzua

No 6356, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We provide new evidence on the link between beauty and hiring practices in the labor market. Specifically, we study if people with less attractive faces are less likely to be contacted after submitting a resume. Our empirical strategy is based on an experimental approach. We sent fictitious resumes with pictures of attractive and unattractive faces to real job openings in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We find that attractive people receive 36 percent more responses (callbacks) than unattractive people. Given the experimental design, this difference can be attributed to the exogenous manipulation of facial attractiveness of our fake job applicants.

Keywords: callback rates; labor market discrimination; facial attractiveness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J71 J78 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2012-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published - published in: Economic Letters, 2013, 118 (1), 170–172.

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Journal Article: The labor market return to an attractive face: Evidence from a field experiment (2013)
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