Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/104647 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 8527
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We analyze how attractiveness rated at the start of the interview is related to weight (controlling for height), and BMI, separately by gender and also accounting for interviewer fixed effects, in a nationally representative sample. We are the first to show that height, weight, and BMI all strongly contribute to male and female attractiveness when attractiveness is rated by opposite-sex interviewers, whereas only thinner female respondents are considered attractive by same-sex interviewers; that is, anthropometric characteristics are irrelevant to male interviewers in assessing male attractiveness. In addition, we estimate the interplay of these attractiveness and anthropometric measures in labor and marital outcomes such as hourly wage and spousal education, showing that attractiveness and height matter in the labor market, whereas both male and female BMI are valued in the marriage market instead of attractiveness.
Subjects: 
beauty
BMI
height
weight
wage
spousal education
JEL: 
D1
J1
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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