The face of debt: Facial width-to-height ratios and regional debt in China

Abstract

Facial width-to-height ratio (fWHr) has been widely proven to exert a lasting influence on shaping behavior. In this paper, we provide empirical evidence on the relationship between the fWHr level of bureaucrats and local government debt performance and attempt to discuss the demographic differences in explaining the fWHr-behavior link. We manually collected the fWHr data of local bureaucrats and used prefecture-level panel data of China from 2006 to 2015. The results show that the fWHr levels of bureaucrats are highly correlated with local government debt—bureaucrats with higher fWHr tend to issue more debt and expand the local debt substantially. Results of heterogeneity analysis suggest that the level of fWHr is gender-related—male bureaucrats tend to issue more debt. In addition, bureaucrats who have higher fWHr and who also hold higher education degrees are more inclined to issue debt. In this paper, we concentrate on the Chinese bureaucrat group and provide new micro-evidence on fWHr-related behavior from the perspective of local debt.