DOES BEAUTY MATTER IN UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION?

Physically attractive individuals achieve greater success in terms of earnings and status than those who are less attractive. However, whether this 'beauty premium' arises primarily because of differences in ability or confidence, bias, or sorting remains unknown. We use a rich dataset from a women'...

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Published in:Economic Inquiry Vol. 53; no. 2; pp. 940 - 962
Main Authors: Deryugina, Tatyana, Shurchkov, Olga
Format: Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Apr2015
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        10.1111/ecin.12152
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        atl: DOES BEAUTY MATTER IN UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION?
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        au:
          Deryugina, Tatyana
          Shurchkov, Olga
        affil:
          Department of Finance, University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign, 4029 Business Instructional Facility, 515 E. Gregory Dr, Champaign IL 61820
          Department of Economics, Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley MA 02481
      su:
        Income
        Success
        Discrimination in education
        Performance evaluation
        Grading of students -- Universities & colleges
      sug:
        subj:
          Income
          Success
          Discrimination in education
          Performance evaluation
          Grading of students -- Universities & colleges
      ab: Physically attractive individuals achieve greater success in terms of earnings and status than those who are less attractive. However, whether this 'beauty premium' arises primarily because of differences in ability or confidence, bias, or sorting remains unknown. We use a rich dataset from a women's college to evaluate each of these three mechanisms at the college level. We find that students judged to be more attractive perform significantly worse on standardized tests but, conditional on test scores, are not evaluated more favorably at the point of admission, suggesting that more attractive people do not possess greater abilities at the beginning of college. Controlling for test scores, more attractive students receive only marginally better grades in some specifications, and the magnitudes of the differences are very small. Finally, there is substantial beauty-based sorting into areas of study and occupations. ( JEL J16, I21, I23)
      pubtype: Academic Journal
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    language: English
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