Employers' Preferences for Gender, Age, Height and Beauty: Direct Evidence
45 Pages Posted: 15 Dec 2009 Last revised: 13 Jul 2023
Date Written: December 2009
Abstract
We study firms' advertised preferences for gender, age, height and beauty in a sample of ads from a Chinese internet job board, and interpret these patterns using a simple employer search model. We find that these characteristics are widely and highly valued by Chinese employers, though employers' valuations are highly specific to detailed jobs and occupations. Consistent with our model, advertised preferences for gender, age, height and beauty all become less prevalent as job skill requirements rise. Cross-sectional patterns suggest some role for customer discrimination, product market competition, and corporate culture. Using the recent collapse of China's labor market as a natural experiment, we find that firms' advertised education and experience requirements respond to changing labor market conditions in the direction predicted by our model, while firms' advertised preferences for age, gender, height and beauty do not.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
What Makes You Click? Mate Preferences and Matching Outcomes in Online Dating
By Günter J. Hitsch, Ali Hortacsu, ...
-
Matching and Sorting in Online Dating
By Günter J. Hitsch, Ali Hortacsu, ...
-
Marry for What? Caste and Mate Selection in Modern India
By Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo, ...
-
Marry for What: Caste and Mate Selection in Modern India
By Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo, ...
-
Marry for What? Caste and Mate Selection in Modern India
By Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo, ...
-
Marry for What? Caste and Mate Selection in Modern India
By Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo, ...
-
Wage Differentials between the Public and the Private Sectors in India
By Elena Glinskayai and Michael Lokshin
-
Matching with Trade-Offs: Revealed Preferences Over Competing Characteristics
By Alfred Galichon and Bernard Salanie