Working Paper: NBER ID: w12019
Authors: Naci Mocan; Erdal Tekin
Abstract: Using data from three waves of Add Health we find that being very attractive reduces a young adult's (ages 18-26) propensity for criminal activity and being unattractive increases it for a number of crimes, ranging from burglary to selling drugs. A variety of tests demonstrate that this result is not because beauty is acting as a proxy for socio-economic status. Being very attractive is also positively associated adult vocabulary test scores, which suggests the possibility that beauty may have an impact on human capital formation. We demonstrate that, especially for females, holding constant current beauty, high school beauty (pre-labor market beauty) has a separate impact on crime, and that high school beauty is correlated with variables that gauge various aspects of high school experience, such as GPA, suspension or having being expelled from school, and problems with teachers. \nThese results suggest two handicaps faced by unattractive individuals. First, a labor market penalty provides a direct incentive for unattractive individuals toward criminal activity. Second, the level of beauty in high school has an effect on criminal propensity 7-8 years later, which seems to be due to the impact of the level of beauty in high school on human capital formation, although this second avenue seems to be effective for females only.
Keywords: beauty; crime; human capital; labor market; socioeconomic status
JEL Codes: I1; I2; K4; J2; J3
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| high school beauty (I19) | adult crime (K42) |
| being very attractive (Y60) | criminal activity (K42) |
| being unattractive (J79) | criminal activity (K42) |
| high school beauty (I19) | human capital formation (J24) |
| human capital formation (J24) | adult crime (K42) |
| high school beauty (I19) | academic performance (D29) |
| high school beauty (I19) | teacher interactions (A21) |
| high school beauty (I19) | disciplinary issues (Y80) |
| being attractive (Z30) | interactions with criminal justice system (K14) |
| labor market penalty for unattractive individuals (J79) | criminal behavior (K42) |