Perfecting beauty under the knife: the determinants of global cosmetic surgery consumption
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The Department of Economic Science was founded in 1898 to teach economic theory as a truth of industrial life, and was very much concerned with applying economics to business and industry, particularly agriculture. Between 1910 and 1967 it showed the growing influence of other social studies, such as sociology, history, and political science. Today it encompasses the majors of Agricultural Business (preparing for agricultural finance and management), Business Economics, and Economics (for advanced studies in business or economics or for careers in financing, management, insurance, etc).
History
The Department of Economic Science was founded in 1898 under the Division of Industrial Science (later College of Liberal Arts and Sciences); it became co-directed by the Division of Agriculture in 1919. In 1910 it became the Department of Economics and Political Science. In 1913 it became the Department of Applied Economics and Social Science; in 1924 it became the Department of Economics, History, and Sociology; in 1931 it became the Department of Economics and Sociology. In 1967 it became the Department of Economics, and in 2007 it became co-directed by the Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Business.
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1898–present
Historical Names
- Department of Economic Science (1898–1910)
- Department of Economics and Political Science (1910-1913)
- Department of Applied Economics and Social Science (1913–1924)
- Department of Economics, History and Sociology (1924–1931)
- Department of Economics and Sociology (1931–1967)
Related Units
- College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (parent college)
- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (parent college)
- College of Business (parent college)
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Abstract
We investigate major conjectures regarding the prevalence of cosmetic surgical procedures and their determinants, using a quantitative multidisciplinary approach and a recent international dataset from the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. Cosmetic surgery predominantly concerns women. The highest frequencies found in Greece, Italy, Korea, and Brazil fall short of epidemic proportions at less than 0.6% of their population. However, consistent with idealized stereotypes reported in the media and the social science literature, a few procedures dominate the composition of surgical interventions and focus on thinning bodies and reshaping breasts. Culture and geography count. We identify Latin and Neo-Confucian cultural effects associated with higher frequencies of surgical procedures. Beyond the Latin effect, a large positive geographical effect persists in Latin-American countries. Economic globalization is positively associated with the higher frequencies of procedures. Gender roles matter. Women reduce their consumption of procedures as they increasingly participate in the labor force and when they are more equally represented politically. Lower fertility increases the consumption. Finally, consumption increases with increasing income and greater availability of surgical services.