THE ROLE OF BEAUTY IN THE LABOR MARKET (By Philipp Kraft)

[Román Culebro Martínez]

The present paper breaks new ground in labor economic research by providing direct evidence of potential discrimination among attractive and unattractive job candidates. It utilizes a field experiment, the so-called "CV testing approach" to determine discrimination in recruitment based on physical attractiveness. Two individuals who are equivalent on all required and desired job characteristics except their physical attractiveness, apply for the same vacancy. Application photos are used to examine the level of discrimination regarding an applicant´s physical attractiveness. The experiment is conducted among a set of 990 German firms. Results show that attractive candidate are on average 14% more likely to get an invitation for an interview...   the_role_beauty_in_labor_market.pdf