There are many way the people differ from each other and one prominent difference is how attractive they are. For example actress Angelina Jolie is good looking, due to this reason her films attract a large audiences so this mean large income for her.
Now we see hoe prevalent are the economic benefits of beauty? The answer is in the study of Daniel Hamermesh and Jeff Biddle published in American Economic Review. They collected the data from surveys from individuals in the US and Canada. The interviewers who conducted the survey were asked to rate the physical appearance of the respondents. They examined that how much the wage of the respondent depends upon the standard determinants like education and experience, and how much they depend upon physical appearance.
They found that the beauty pays. People who more attractive earn 5% more than the people of average look and the people average look earn 5% to 10% more than the people of less than the average. Similar results were found for both men and women. Why there is difference in wage? There are several ways to interpret the beauty premium.
One Interpretation is that good looks are themselves a type of innate ability determining the productivity and wage. Some people are born with the attributes of the movie stars, other people are not. Good looks are useful in the job where worker present themselves to the public such as acting, sales and waiting on table. In this case, an attractive worker is more valuable to firm than unattractive worker. As attractive worker is consumer preference so firms willingness to pay is more to an attractive worker.
A second Interpretation is that beauty is a direct measure of other types of abilities. How attractive a person depends on more than just heredity, it also include the dressing, hairstyle, personal conduct and other types of attributes that a person can control. So a person who successfully projects an attractive image in a survey interview appears to be more intelligent person who succeeds at other tasks as well.
A third interpretation is that the beauty premium is a type of discrimination. This phenomenon occurs when different individuals (workers) in market are offered different opportunities on the bases of differ only by race, ethnic group, sex, age or different personal characteristics. Discrimination represents some people’s prejudice against certain groups in society.
