Hat Julia aufgrund ihres Vornamens Wettbewerbsvorteile gegenüber Ayse und Chantal?
Ein Experiment auf dem Beziehungs-, Nachhilfe- und Wohnungsmarkt
Laura Lütkenhöner
February 2011

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Abstract 

Does Julia Have a Competitive Advantage Over Ayse and Chantal Thanks to Her First Name? 
An Experiment on the Relationship, Private Lessons, and Residential Market 

This paper deals with the question whether or not a market success is affected by one’s first name. Twelve fictional market participants were created and for each of them classified ads were placed in (real) magazines, pretending (1) to be looking for a relationship, (2) to offer private lessons, and (3) to be looking for an apartment. Afterwards the persons who had been trying to contact the fictional market participants were counted. Ceteris paribus market participants bearing attractive German first names got more offers than those with less attractive German or Turkish first names, at least on the relationship and residential market. Generally the differences due to gender or ethnic origin are much larger than those of seemingly belonging to a higher or lower social stratum, attributed because of the first name.