Abstract: How much are people willing to pay extra for sexual services with a white woman instead of one with darker skin? Skin colour assessed from photographs of women on escort websites in Mexico was compared with price information to answer this question. Women with darker skin were found to be underrepresented, consistent with self-selection into other occupations with an expectation of higher wages. Lighter-skinned escorts also charge more than darker women. Controlling for estimated age and physical measures like weight, hair colour, and body type, a one standard deviation increase in darkness reduces an escort’s price by approximately 10 percent.
Keywords: Wage differentials, skin colour, prostitution, Mexico
JEL Classification: C80, J16, J30, J70, O54
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Conclusions
The demand for sexual services affects the relative returns for specific traits and the
self-selection patterns into that labor market. Using a sample of women from internet escort
services, this paper finds two key results. First, white and dark brown skin colors are
underrepresented in this market as compared with the national population and the escort sample is whiter than the population of Mexican women. Second, there is a penalty for darker
skin color in the hourly price women charge: approximately 10 percent for an increase in
skin color of one standard deviation. Weight, skin color, and bust size have the largest effect
on the price charged. In order to measure attractiveness, future studies focusing on the sexual
services market need to account for at least these three variables.
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