Weight, attractiveness, and gender when hiring: A field experiment in Spain

B-Tier
Journal: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Year: 2024
Volume: 218
Issue: C
Pages: 132-145

Authors (4)

Goulão, Catarina (not in RePEc) Lacomba, Juan Antonio (not in RePEc) Lagos, Francisco (Universidad de Granada) Rooth, Dan-Olof (Stockholms Universitet)

Score contribution per author:

0.503 = (α=2.01 / 4 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Being overweight or obese is associated with lower employment and earnings, possibly arising from employer discrimination. A few studies have used field experiments to show that obese job applicants are, in fact, discriminated against in the hiring process. However, whether overweight job applicants also face employer discrimination is still an open question. To this end, we have designed a correspondence testing experiment in which fictitious applications are sent to real job openings across twelve different occupations in the Spanish labor market. We compare the callback rate for applications with a facial photo of a normal weight person to the one for applications with a photo of the same person manipulated into looking overweight.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:jeborg:v:218:y:2024:i:c:p:132-145
Journal Field
Theory
Author Count
4
Added to Database
2026-01-25