Gender and beauty in the financial analyst profession: evidence from the United States and China

53 Pages Posted: 31 Mar 2019 Last revised: 13 Jul 2020

See all articles by Congcong Li

Congcong Li

Duquesne University - A.J. Palumbo School of Business Administration

An-Ping Lin

Singapore Management University - School of Accountancy

Hai Lu

University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management

Kevin J. Veenstra

McMaster University - DeGroote School of Business

Date Written: June 1, 2020

Abstract

We examine how gender and beauty affect the likelihood of being voted as an All-Star in the financial analyst profession in both the United States and China. We find that female analysts are more likely to be voted as All-Star analysts in the United States, but good-looking female U.S. analysts are less likely to be voted as All-Stars. The conclusion is the opposite for Chinese analysts. We find that female analysts in China are less likely to be voted as All-Stars, but the likelihood increases with their facial attractiveness. These findings implicate a beauty penalty for female analysts in the United States and gender discrimination against female analysts in China. This career path evidence from a competitive financial industry suggests that gender and beauty biases may be rooted deeply in culture and the legal environment and should not be treated homogenously.

Keywords: Analysts, Gender, Beauty, Labor Market

JEL Classification: D83, G11, G24, J24, J44, M41

Suggested Citation

Li, Congcong and Lin, An-Ping and Lu, Hai and Veenstra, Kevin J., Gender and beauty in the financial analyst profession: evidence from the United States and China (June 1, 2020). Review of Accounting Studies, Forthcoming, Singapore Management University School of Accountancy Research Paper No. 2020-114, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3347968 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3347968

Congcong Li

Duquesne University - A.J. Palumbo School of Business Administration ( email )

Pittsburgh, PA 15282
United States

An-Ping Lin

Singapore Management University - School of Accountancy ( email )

60 Stamford Road
Singapore 178900
Singapore

Hai Lu (Contact Author)

University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management ( email )

105 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E6 M5S1S4
Canada

Kevin J. Veenstra

McMaster University - DeGroote School of Business ( email )

1280 Main Street West
Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M4
Canada

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
489
Abstract Views
4,053
Rank
106,926
PlumX Metrics