IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp9675.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Tattoos, Life Style and the Labor Market

Author

Listed:
  • Dillingh, Rik

    (Tilburg University)

  • Kooreman, Peter

    (Tilburg University)

  • Potters, Jan

    (Tilburg University)

Abstract

Placing a tattoo is a choice with potentially significant and long-lasting social and economic consequences. In this study we look at the factors determining the decision to place a tattoo and combine this with several outcomes, such as income and employment status, living together with a partner, (perceived) health and substance use. The analyses are based on unique panel data of a representative sample of Dutch individuals. The tattooed population differs significantly from the non-tattooed population on a wide range of characteristics. The first part of our analysis describes the number, timing, location, size and visibility of tattoos. In the second part we use fixed effects and instrumental variables analysis to explore the effect of tattoos on the above mentioned outcome measures. Our analyses suggest less favorable outcomes for people with (very visible) tattoos, though especially in the case of the labor market, the relationships are relatively weak.

Suggested Citation

  • Dillingh, Rik & Kooreman, Peter & Potters, Jan, 2016. "Tattoos, Life Style and the Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 9675, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9675
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp9675.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ruffle, Bradley J. & Wilson, Anne E., 2019. "Tat will tell: Tattoos and time preferences," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 566-585.
    2. Jennifer L. Doleac & Luke C.D. Stein, 2013. "The Visible Hand: Race and Online Market Outcomes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 123(11), pages 469-492, November.
    3. Fryer Roland & Jackson Matthew O., 2008. "A Categorical Model of Cognition and Biased Decision Making," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-44, February.
    4. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2000. "Economics and Identity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 715-753.
    5. repec:bla:obuest:v:62:y:2000:i:0:p:771-800 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Michael T. French & Johanna Catherine Maclean & Philip K. Robins & Bisma Sayed & Leah Shiferaw, 2016. "Tattoos, Employment, and Labor Market Earnings: Is There a Link in the Ink?," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 82(4), pages 1212-1246, April.
    7. repec:wly:soecon:v:82:4:y:2016:p:1212-1246 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Hamermesh, Daniel S & Biddle, Jeff E, 1994. "Beauty and the Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1174-1194, December.
    9. Mocan, H Naci & Tekin, Erdal, 2006. "Guns and Juvenile Crime," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(2), pages 507-531, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Daviti Jibuti, 2018. "Discrimination against Workers with Visible Tattoos: Experimental Evidence from Germany," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp628, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    2. Rebecca Owens & Steven J. Filoromo & Lauren A. Landgraf & Christopher D. Lynn & Michael R. A. Smetana, 2023. "Deviance as an historical artefact: a scoping review of psychological studies of body modification," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Ruffle, Bradley J. & Wilson, Anne E., 2019. "Tat will tell: Tattoos and time preferences," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 566-585.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dillingh, Rik, 2016. "Empirical essays on behavioral economics and lifecycle decisions," Other publications TiSEM 0e2143e3-bd86-4302-90eb-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Daviti Jibuti, 2018. "Discrimination against Workers with Visible Tattoos: Experimental Evidence from Germany," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp628, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    3. Morten Størling Hedegaard & Jean-Robert Tyran, 2018. "The Price of Prejudice," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 40-63, January.
    4. Maarten Vendrik & Christiane Schwieren, 2010. "Identification, screening and stereotyping in labour market discrimination," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 99(2), pages 141-171, March.
    5. Daniel Hamermesh, 2012. "Tall or taller, pretty or prettier: is discrimination absolute or relative?," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-17, December.
    6. Johan Almenberg & Anna Dreber, 2009. "Lady and the Trump: Status and Wealth in the Marriage Market," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 161-181, April.
    7. Ruffle, Bradley J. & Wilson, Anne E., 2019. "Tat will tell: Tattoos and time preferences," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 566-585.
    8. Amany Gouda-Vossos & Barnaby J Dixson & Robert C Brooks, 2016. "Sexual Conflict and Gender Gap Effects: Associations between Social Context and Sex on Rated Attractiveness and Economic Status," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, January.
    9. Geijtenbeek, Lydia & Plug, Erik, 2018. "Is there a penalty for registered women? Is there a premium for registered men? Evidence from a sample of transsexual workers," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 334-347.
    10. Yulia Evsyukova & Felix Rusche & Wladislaw Mill, 2023. "LinkedOut? A Field Experiment on Discrimination in Job Network Formation," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2023_482v2, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany, revised Oct 2024.
    11. Naci Mocan & Erdal Tekin, 2010. "Ugly Criminals," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(1), pages 15-30, February.
    12. Carmelo Licata & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2016. "Partisan stereotypes," Working Papers CEB 16-037, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    13. Natalia Zinovyeva & Manuel F. Bagues, 2010. "Does gender matter for academic promotion? Evidence from a randomized natural experiment," Working Papers 2010-15, FEDEA.
    14. Kaushik Basu, 2016. "Beyond the Invisible Hand: Groundwork for a New Economics," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9299.
    15. Das, Jayoti & De Loach, Stephen B., 2011. "Mirror, mirror on the wall: The effect of time spent grooming on earnings," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 26-34, February.
    16. Roland G. Fryer, Jr, 2010. "The Importance of Segregation, Discrimination, Peer Dynamics, and Identity in Explaining Trends in the Racial Achievement Gap," NBER Working Papers 16257, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Baert, Stijn & Herregods, Jolien & Sterkens, Philippe, 2024. "What does job applicants’ body art signal to employers?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 742-755.
    18. Peter Younkin & Venkat Kuppuswamy, 2018. "The Colorblind Crowd? Founder Race and Performance in Crowdfunding," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(7), pages 3269-3287, July.
    19. Daskalova, Vessela, 2018. "Discrimination, social identity, and coordination: An experiment," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 238-252.
    20. Dragone, Davide & Savorelli, Luca, 2012. "Thinness and obesity: A model of food consumption, health concerns, and social pressure," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 243-256.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    family; health; labor market; tattoos; panel data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9675. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.