1 Unpacking the Beauty Premium: Is it Looks or Ego? * Andrew Leigh Economics Program Research School of Social Sciences Australian National University andrew.leigh@anu.edu.au http://econrsss.anu.edu.au/~aleigh/ Jeff Borland Department of Economics University of Melbourne jib@unimelb.edu.au July 2007 Abstract Do attractive workers earn more because others respond directly to their appearance, or because they are more confident? Separately controlling for interviewer beauty ratings and self-assessed beauty, we find evidence that labor market success is more affected by good looks than ego. Keywords: beauty premium; employment; wages; self-confidence JEL Codes: J31, J71 * We are grateful to Dan Hamermesh for valuable comments on an earlier draft.