Journal of Banking & Finance Vol. 155 2023
Beauty and stock market participation
Abstract
This paper investigates whether beauty, an important natural endowment, affects investment decisions. Using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Survey (WLS), which provides a photo-based measure of facial beauty, we find that better-looking individuals are more likely to own stocks and invest a larger share of wealth in stocks. We consider a wide range of potential mediators that may drive this relationship between beauty and stock market participation. We find that income and sociability explain a large portion of the beauty effect. For both males and females, beauty has a significant positive impact on stock market participation. Using another dataset that includes the interviewer's rating of the respondent's physical attractiveness, we find similar results. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the economic returns to beauty and the source of heterogeneity in household portfolio choice.
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2023.106994
- Volume
- 155
- Pages
- 106994
- Language
- en
- Sources
- bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref