Ze'ev Shtudiner

Are Good-Looking People More Employable?

We investigate the role of physical attractiveness in the hiring process. We sent 5,312 curricula vitae CVs in pairs to 2,656 advertised job openings. In each pair, one CV was without a picture, whereas the second, otherwise almost identical CV contained a picture of either an attractive male or female or a plain-looking male or female. Employer callbacks to attractive men are significantly higher than to men with no picture and to plain-looking men, nearly doubling the latter group. Strikingly, attractive women do not enjoy the same beauty premium. In fact, women with no picture have a significantly higher rate of callback than attractive or plain-looking women. We explore a number of explanations for this discrimination against attractive women and provide evidence that female jealousy and envy are likely reasons. This paper was accepted by Uri Gneezy, behavioral economics.

Waiting to Cooperate

Efficient cooperation often requires coordination, such that exactly one of two players takes an available action. If the decisions whether to pursue the action are made simultaneously, then neither or both may acquiesce leading to an inefficient outcome. However, inefficiency may be reduced if players move sequentially. We test this experimentally by introducing repeated two-stage versions of such a game where the action is individually profitable. In one version, players may wait in the first stage to see what their partner did and then coordinate in the second stage. In another version, sequential decision-making is imposed by assigning one player to move in stage one and the other in stage two. Although there are fewer cooperative decisions in the two-stage treatments, we show that overall subjects coordinate better on efficient cooperation and on avoiding both acquiescing. Yet, only some pairs actually achieve higher profits, while the least cooperative pairs do worse in the two-stage games than their single-stage counterparts. For these, rather than facilitating coordination, the additional stage invites attempts to disguise uncooperative play, which are met with punishment.

Did I Make the Right Decision? Attributes that Influence People Choice of City of Residence Using Conjoint Analysis as Marketing Optimization Tool

This paper aims to measure individual preference for various attributes that affect long-term choice of city of residence using Conjoint analysis. A questionnaire was formulated in order to measure consumer perception of the importance of various attributes such as quality of education, distance from work, average price of the property, and proximity to family. Each attribute is composed of 2 categorical levels: High and Low. The research findings based on this methodology highlight both ranked effectiveness of individual and combinatorial attributes on the selection process. This paper addresses a new outlook for optimal selection of real estate (rent or buy) based on integration of personal profile information as construed from attribute valuation. It is argued that outcomes of this research can be usefully leveraged by real estate professionals.