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Beauty and the feast: Examining the effect of beauty on earnings using restaurant tipping data

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  • Parrett, Matt

Abstract

This paper looks at the effect of beauty on earnings using restaurant tipping data. Customers were surveyed as they left a set of five Virginia restaurants about the dining experience, their server, and themselves, including about their tip and their server’s beauty and productivity. I find that attractive servers earn approximately $1261 more per year in tips than unattractive servers, the primary driver of which is female customers tipping attractive females more than unattractive females. Potential explanations of this earnings gap are drawn from both the labor and experimental economics literatures, the most compelling of which is customer taste-based discrimination.

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  • Parrett, Matt, 2015. "Beauty and the feast: Examining the effect of beauty on earnings using restaurant tipping data," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 34-46.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:49:y:2015:i:c:p:34-46
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2015.04.002
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Shtudiner, Zeev & Klein, Galit, 2020. "Gender, attractiveness, and judgment of impropriety: The case of accountants," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    2. Cross, Jeffrey & Zhang, Guangli, 2024. "Focal points for giving," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    3. Rachel Lau & Brooke Krause, 2022. "Preferences for perceived attractiveness in modern dance," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 46(3), pages 483-517, September.
    4. Lin, Lily & Hoegg, JoAndrea & Aquino, Karl, 2018. "When Beauty Backfires: The Effects of Server Attractiveness on Consumer Taste Perceptions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 296-311.
    5. Grossman, Philip J. & Eckel, Catherine & Komai, Mana & Zhan, Wei, 2019. "It pays to be a man: Rewards for leaders in a coordination game," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 197-215.
    6. Babin, J. Jobu & Chauhan, Haritima S. & Kistler, Steven L., 2024. "When pretty hurts: Beauty premia and penalties in eSports," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 726-741.
    7. Raymundo M. Campos‐Vazquez & Carolina Rivas‐Herrera, 2021. "The Color of Electoral Success: Estimating the Effect of Skin Tone on Winning Elections in Mexico," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(2), pages 844-864, March.
    8. Thrane, Christer & Haugom, Erik, 2020. "Peer effects on restaurant tipping in Norway: An experimental approach," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 244-252.
    9. Sandra M. Leitner & Oliver Reiter, 2020. "Employers’ Skills Requirements in the Austrian Labour Market: On the Relative Importance of ICT, Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skills over the Past 15 Years," wiiw Working Papers 190, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    10. Jobu Babin, J. & Hussey, Andrew & Nikolsko-Rzhevskyy, Alex & Taylor, David A., 2020. "Beauty Premiums Among Academics," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    11. Ahmed, Shaker & Ranta, Mikko & Vähämaa, Emilia & Vähämaa, Sami, 2023. "Facial attractiveness and CEO compensation: Evidence from the banking industry," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    12. Eiji Yamamura & Ryohei Hayashi & Yoshiro Tsutsui & Fumio Ohtake, 2022. "Racers’ attractive looks, popularity, and performance: how do speedboat racers react to fans’ expectations?," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 73(4), pages 597-623, October.
    13. Dilmaghani, Maryam, 2020. "Beauty perks: Physical appearance, earnings, and fringe benefits," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    14. Kseniya Bortnikova, 2020. "Beauty and Productivity: A Meta-Analysis," Working Papers IES 2020/18, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised Jun 2020.
    15. Ying Cao & Feng Guan & Zengquan Li & Yong George Yang, 2020. "Analysts’ Beauty and Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(9), pages 4315-4335, September.
    16. Giovanni Busetta & Fabio Fiorillo & Giulio Palomba, 2021. "The impact of attractiveness on job opportunities in Italy: a gender field experiment," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(1), pages 171-201, April.
    17. Parshakov, Petr & Gasparetto, Thadeu & Votintseva, Nadezhda & Shakina, Elena, 2024. "Beyond the pitch: Exploring the role of beauty in soccer player salaries," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    18. Peng, Langchuan & Wang, Xi & Ying, Shanshan, 2020. "The heterogeneity of beauty premium in China: Evidence from CFPS," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 386-396.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wage gap; Beauty; Restaurant tipping; Discrimination;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • C90 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - General

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