Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/300153 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
IES Working Paper No. 14/2024
Publisher: 
Charles University in Prague, Institute of Economic Studies (IES), Prague
Abstract: 
Common wisdom suggests that beauty helps in the labor market. We show that two factors combine to explain away the mean beauty premium reported in the literature. First, correcting for publication bias reduces the premium by at least a third. Second, controlling for cognitive ability negates the premium for all occupations except sex workers, a point further underscored by the similarity of the beauty effect on earnings and productivity. The second factor implies a positive link, perhaps genetic, between beauty and intelligence. We find little evidence of substantial attenuation bias that could offset publication and omitted- variable biases. The empirical literature is inconsistent with discrimination based solely on tastes for beauty. To obtain these results we collect 1,159 estimates of the effect of beauty on earnings or productivity reported in 67 studies and codify 33 aspects that reflect estimation context, including the potential intensity of attenuation bias. We employ recently developed techniques to account for publication bias and model uncertainty.
Subjects: 
energy Beauty premium
productivity
meta-analysis
model uncertainty
publication bias
JEL: 
C83
J24
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.