Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: The Effect of Time Spent Grooming on Earnings

27 Pages Posted: 18 Sep 2007 Last revised: 12 Jun 2009

See all articles by Jayoti Das

Jayoti Das

Elon University - Martha and Spencer Love School of Business

Stephen B. DeLoach

Elon University

Date Written: June 8, 2009

Abstract

To most economists, personal grooming is a non-market activity. The standard view is that time spent in non-market activities is counterproductive as it reduces work effort and job commitment. But grooming may be different. Grooming provides an important source of communication about workers, their values and personalities. There is reason to believe that certain productive personality traits may be inferred on the basis of personal grooming. In this paper, we use data from the American Time Use survey’s pooled cross-section 2003-2007 to investigate the effect of additional time spent grooming on earnings. The results show that the effect of grooming on earnings differs significantly by gender and race.

Keywords: beauty, wages, grooming, ATUS

JEL Classification: J3, J7

Suggested Citation

Das, Jayoti and DeLoach, Stephen B., Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: The Effect of Time Spent Grooming on Earnings (June 8, 2009). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1013649 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1013649

Jayoti Das

Elon University - Martha and Spencer Love School of Business ( email )

Department of Economics
Campus Box 2075
Elon, NC 27244
United States
336-278-5941 (Phone)
336-278-5952 (Fax)

Stephen B. DeLoach (Contact Author)

Elon University ( email )

Department of Economics
Campus Box 2075
Elon, NC 27244
United States
336-278-5943 (Phone)
336-278-5952 (Fax)

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