FACIAL ATTRACTIVENESS AND LIFETIME EARNINGS: EVIDENCE FROM A COHORT STUDY

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Scholz, John Karl; Sicinski, Kamil
• 署名单位: University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison; University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison; University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/REST_a_00435
• 发表日期: 2015-03
• 页码: 14-28
• 关键词: labor-market outcomes; physical attractiveness; beauty; DISCRIMINATION; personality; PSYCHOLOGY; ECONOMICS; stature; height

摘要

We use unique longitudinal data to document an economically and statistically significant positive correlation between the facial attractiveness of male high school graduates and their subsequent labor market earnings. There are only weak links between facial attractiveness and direct measures of cognitive skills and no link between facial attractiveness and mortality. Even after including a lengthy set of characteristics, including IQ, high school activities, proxy measures for confidence and personality, family background, and additional respondent characteristics in an empirical model of earnings, the attractiveness premium is present in the respondents' mid-30s and early 50s. Our findings are consistent with attractiveness being an enduring, positive labor market characteristic.