The Looks of a Winner: Beauty, Gender and Electoral Success

27 Pages Posted: 29 Sep 2006

See all articles by Panu Poutvaara

Panu Poutvaara

University of Helsinki - Department of Economics; Helsinki Center of Economic Research (HECER); CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Niclas Berggren

Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN); University of Economics, Prague - Faculty of Economics and Public Administration

Henrik Jordahl

Örebro University - School of Business; Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN); CESifo; IZA

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: September 2006

Abstract

We study the role of beauty in politics. For the first time, focus is put on differences in how women and men evaluate female and male candidates and how different candidate traits relate to success in real and hypothetical elections. We have collected 16,218 assessments by 2,772 respondents of photos of 1,929 Finnish political candidates. Evaluations of beauty explain success in real elections better than evaluations of competence, intelligence, likability, or trustworthiness. The beauty premium is larger for female candidates, in contrast to findings in previous labor-market studies.

Keywords: beauty, gender, elections, political candidates, beauty premium

JEL Classification: D72, J45, J7

Suggested Citation

Poutvaara, Panu and Berggren, Niclas and Jordahl, Henrik, The Looks of a Winner: Beauty, Gender and Electoral Success (September 2006). IZA Discussion Paper No. 2311, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=933639 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.933639

Panu Poutvaara (Contact Author)

University of Helsinki - Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 54
FIN-00014 Helsinki
Finland

HOME PAGE: http://www.valt.helsinki.fi/blogs/poutvaar/

Helsinki Center of Economic Research (HECER) ( email )

FI-00014 Helsinki
Finland

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Niclas Berggren

Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) ( email )

Box 55665
Grevgatan 34, 2nd floor
Stockholm, SE-102 15
Sweden

HOME PAGE: http://www.ifn.se/nb

University of Economics, Prague - Faculty of Economics and Public Administration ( email )

nám. W. Churchilla 4
Praha, 130 67
Czech Republic

Henrik Jordahl

Örebro University - School of Business ( email )

SE-70182 Orebro, Örebro SE-701 82
Sweden

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.oru.se/personal/henrik_jordahl

Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) ( email )

Box 55665
Grevgatan 34, 2nd floor
Stockholm, SE-102 15
Sweden

HOME PAGE: http://www.ifn.se/hj

CESifo ( email )

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

IZA ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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