Gender and beauty in the financial analyst profession: evidence from the United States and China
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Gender and beauty in the financial analyst profession: evidence from the United States and China Congcong Li 1
& An-Ping
Lin 2 & Hai Lu 3,4 & Kevin Veenstra 5
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract We examine how gender and beauty affect the likelihood of being voted as an All-Star in the financial analyst profession in both the United States and China. We find that female analysts are more likely to be voted as All-Star analysts in the United States, but good-looking female U.S. analysts are less likely to be voted as All-Stars. The conclusion is the opposite for Chinese analysts. We find that female analysts in China are less likely to be voted as All-Stars, but the likelihood increases with their facial attractiveness. These findings implicate a beauty penalty for female analysts in the United States and gender discrimination against female analysts in China. This career path evidence from a competitive financial industry suggests that gender and beauty biases may be rooted deeply in culture and the legal environment and should not be treated homogenously. Keywords Analysts . Gender . Beauty . Labor market JEL Classification D83, G11, G24, J24, J44, M41
1 Introduction This study investigates gender discrimination and beauty bias in the financial industry in the United States and China. Specifically, we examine whether the likelihood of
* Hai Lu [email protected] Congcong Li [email protected] An-Ping Lin [email protected] Kevin Veenstra [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
C. Li et al.
becoming a star analyst, one of the most important career outcomes for financial analysts, is affected by analysts’ gender and beauty. These two countries have very different legal policies and cultures. After the passage of the federal civil rights legislation of the 1960s in the United States, overt forms of discrimination, such as stating that a particular gender or type of appearance is preferred in job postings, are illegal. In China, however, these forms of discrimination and biases are common. Kuhn and Shen (2013) find that over one-third of Chinese companies, seeking highly educated urban employees, have at least one Internet job posting stating a preferred gender. In addition, many Chinese government departments and private companies make explicit requests for age, height, and beauty in their Internet job postings (Human Rights Watch 2018).1 Such cultural and legislative differences call into question whether the gender and beauty biases in the labor market differ in the United States and China. The issue as to whether gender discrimination exists in the labor market remains debated among academics and policymakers. While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and subsequent related legislation prohibited overt forms of gender discrimination in the United States, gender discrimination continues in more hidden and subtle forms in American society (Kuhn and Shen 2013). The literature documents that American firms pay male employees h
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