Do employers reward physical attractiveness in transition countries?

This paper studies the labour market returns to physical attractiveness using data from three transition countries of the Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. I estimate a large positive effect of attractive looks on males’ probability of employment. Results from the most comprehensive model s...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mavisakalyan, Astghik
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/62135
Description
Summary:This paper studies the labour market returns to physical attractiveness using data from three transition countries of the Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. I estimate a large positive effect of attractive looks on males’ probability of employment. Results from the most comprehensive model suggest a marginal effect of 11.1 percentage points. Using a partial identification approach, I show that this relationship is likely to be causal. After accounting for covariates, particularly measures of human capital, there is no evidence for a statistically significant link between females’ attractiveness and employment.