TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bosman,Ciska M.
AU  - Pfann,Gerard
AU  - Biddle,Jeff E.
AU  - Hamermesh,Daniel S.
TI  - Business Success and Businesses' Beauty Capital
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6083
PY  - 1997
Y2  - July 1997
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6083
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6083.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Gerard A.. Pfann
Faculty of Quantitative Economics
Maastricht University
Maastricht, THE NETHERLANDS
E-Mail: g.pfann@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Daniel S. Hamermesh
Department of Economics
University of Texas
Austin, TX 78712-1173
Tel: 512/475-8526
Fax: 512/471-3510
E-Mail: hamermes@eco.utexas.edu
AB  - We examine whether a difference in pay for beauty is supported by different productivity of people according to looks. Using a sample of advertising firms, we find that those firms with better-looking executives have higher revenues and faster growth than do otherwise identical firms whose executives are not so good-looking.  The impact on revenue far exceeds the likely effect of beauty on the executives' wages.  This suggests that their beauty creates firm-specific investments, in the form of improved relationships within work groups, the returns to which are shared by the firm and the executive.
ER  -