Wednesday, March 28, 2012

THE BEAUTY PREMIUM

When a photo accompanies a job application (as is common in Argentina), attractive job seekers of both sexes get called back 36% more often than unattractive ones, a study finds. (click below to read more)
Three economists in Buenos Aires used what they described as objective measures of beauty: facial proportions that other studies have suggested are universally fetching. The researchers created composite photos of people in their 20s, then adjusted the ratios to make them more attractive or less.
During two months in 2010, the researchers sent out 2,500 applications, with the résumés of the job candidates carefully made similar. Of the attractive fictional candidates, 10.3% were called, compared with 7.6% of the unattractive ones.
"The Labor-Market Return to an Attractive Face: Evidence From a Field Experiment," Florencia López Bóo, Martín A. Rossi, and Sergio Urzúa, Institute for the Study of Labor Discussion Paper (February)
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