Beauty premium, information signaling and job opportunities of ex-prisoners in labour market

Abstract

This thesis studies the impact of factors influencing ex-prisoners’ labour market re-entry. It is separated into three studies. The first study evaluates the effect of beauty premiums from cosmetic surgery on male ex-prisoners under asymmetric information settings where employers are unaware of candidates’ criminal history. Using a Choice Experiment approach (CEs), the beauty from cosmetic surgery performs as the signal submitted to 400 employers. The results show that the beauty from cosmetic surgery associates with the increase of possibility of candidates in the experiments being chosen by 3.05 and 1.54 times, in the formal and informal sector, respectively.

The second study investigates criminal history discrimination in an open-record setting. It combines both the signal of beauty and criminal history in the CEs to examine their impacts. We conducted the CEs with 408 employers and the results show that a criminal history provides labour penalty in the experiments: decreasing ex-prisoners’ job opportunities by 82.8% and 51%, in the formal and informal sector, respectively. It indicates the strong stereotype towards ex-prisoners in the Thai labour market.

The third study applies to a higher level of information signaling by using Job Market Signaling technique in CEs. It submitted more signals of both negative and positive ones to test for their impacts. We conducted the CEs with 53 employers. And the results reveal that: with more perfect information, highly qualified-ex-prisoners can distinguish themselves from the criminal history stigma. That is, signals of the non-violent crime, the certificate of qualification for employment, and the work-readiness skills allow employers to identify suitable ex-prisoner candidates. This thesis points out the significance of beauty premium and criminal history discrimination among male ex-prisoners and non-prisoners in the Thai labour market.