Pretty/Ugly

Daniel Hamermesh is an economist at U.T. Austin who has written multiple papers on the effects of beauty on earnings. The short conclusion to his work: better looking people make more money (or marry people who make more).¹

The abstract for "Beauty in the Labor Market"² reports: "Plain people earn less than average-looking people, who earn less than the good looking...effects for men are at least as great as for women. Unattractive women have lower labor-force participation rates and marry men with less human capital. Better-looking people sort into occupations where beauty may be more productive; but the impact of individuals' looks is mostly independent of occupation, suggesting the existence of pure employer discrimination."

That seems like bad news for ugly people, but then Hamermesh, Meng, and Zhang wrote a paper with some optimistic results about spending on cosmetics and clothing. The data used for the paper was drawn from a study done in China. Interestingly enough, spending more on cosmetics has been convincingly shown to be tied to perceived attractiveness. That means, according to the paper, that part of the money spent on enhancing beauty is actually an investment in earning power. The bad news is that the effects on increased earnings aren't very large. If you spend one more dollar on cosmetics and clothing, how much is an investment? The paper gives a range, from 14 cents to 1.3 cents per dollar. Why the range? As you spend more and more on cosmetics and clothing, it starts to have less effect. Much like a learning curve (and a bunch of other stuff), most of the change happens up front. The people predicted to be getting the most increased earning power from spending on cosmetics and clothing are those spending between two and three times the average. ³



Even though there is an effect from this type of spending, you could increase earning power much more through investment in other things. However, it may be nice for a woman to view this as a little-known discount for clothing and make-up. Since the goal of make-up and clothing isn't to increase earnings anyway, this is a bonus.

Interesting stuff.

1. Summary Table of Beauty Papers' Results

2. Beauty in the Labor Market

3. Dress for Success - Does Primping Pay?