Seminar: Dan Hamermesh (UT Austin)

An economics seminar titled 'Productive Prejudice? The Beauty of Real Estate Agents', presented as part of Hunter College's lectures. Dan Hamermesh of UT Austin, together with Maggie Rong Hu, Yanting Wu and Tingyu Zhou, examines how real estate agents' facial attractiveness affects the selling prices of their clients' properties and their own earnings. Using AI-trained ratings of photographs of over 4,000 agents and sales of residences in Quebec, Canada, 2005-17, the study finds listings with attractive agents sell faster and command higher prices, while principals receive most of the gains. The results offer the first micro evidence on how a characteristic subject to discrimination affects both its seller and buyer.