Discrimination in the labor market has had numerous amounts of research by economists. Research involving discrimination of race, gender, and physically handicapped are mostly what has been researched. A form of discrimination that is mostly overlooked is ugly and beauty. .
I. The Problem Studied.
Attractive people earn more than people who are not attractive. This is a problem with both genders. People who are more attractive sort themselves into occupations where being attractive may be more productive. Interest in "lookism, the construction of a standard of beauty/attractiveness," is an expression of a belief that people failing to meet that standard are mistreated(Biddle and Hamermesh, 1994).
II. The Research Methodology.
Two broad household surveys for the United States and one for Canada provide data on the respondents' looks as well as on the usual labor-market and demographic variables of interest to economists. The 1977 Quality of Employment Survey (QES) contains information on 1,515 workers. This survey has the advantage of including great detail about labor-market behavior, but the disadvantage of including only labor-force participants. The 1971 Quality of American Life survey (QAL) contains interviews of 2,164 respondents. This study has the advantage of having substantial background information on the respondents, but the disadvantage of containing relatively few variables describing the worker's job. The 1981 Canadian Quality of Life study (QOL) contains 3,415 observations. This study has none of the disadvantages of the two American data sets and has the additional attraction of providing three observations on each respondent's looks(Biddle and Hamermesh, 1994). .
In all three surveys, the interviewer, who visited the respondent in his or her home, had to rate .
the respondent's physical appearance on the five-point scale, along which looks range from strikingly handsome or beautiful to homely.
