What’s Behind Her Smile? Health, Looks, and Self-Esteem
通过随机实验为低收入群体提供免费牙科治疗，发现改善牙齿健康显著提升了女性的自尊、微笑频率、短期就业和收入，以及伴侣互动，但对男性无类似影响。
This paper examines how improving dental health affects economic, social, and psychological outcomes. In a randomized experiment, we provide a low-income group free dental care, including prostheses, and find significant and persistent impacts on men’s and women’s dental and self-perceived mental health. For women, treatment generates improvement in self-esteem, a higher likelihood of smiling when photographed, short-run improvements in employment and earnings, and improvement in partner interactions. We find no impact for men in these dimensions. Heterogeneity analyses suggest that treatment effects on labor market outcomes are larger for women with more severe visible dental issues at baseline.