Gender roles produce divergent economic expectations

Abstract

Expectations about economic variables vary systematically across genders. In the domain of inflation, women have persistently higher expectations than men. We argue that traditional gender roles are a significant factor in generating this gender expectations gap as they expose women and men to different economic signals in their daily lives. Using unique data on the participation of men and women in household grocery chores, their resulting exposure to price signals, and their inflation expectations, we document a tight link between the gender expectations gap and the distribution of grocery shopping duties. Because grocery prices are highly volatile, and consumers focus disproportionally on positive price changes, frequent exposure to grocery prices increases perceptions of current inflation and expectations of future inflation. The gender expectations gap is largest in households whose female heads are solely responsible for grocery shopping, whereas no gap arises in households that split grocery chores equally between men and women. Our results indicate that gender differences in inflation expectations arise due to social conditioning rather than through differences in innate abilities, skills, or preferences.

News and uncertainty about COVID-19: Survey evidence and short-run economic impact

“…It is relevant for the interpretation of our data. Behavioral interpretations may also support a conditional supply-side view: salience of shopping experiences drives inflation expectations as documented in Bryan and Venkatu (2001) and D’Acunto et al. (2021) .…”

The Expected, Perceived, and Realized Inflation of US Households Before and During the COVID19 Pandemic

“…Third, when households construct their prediction for "the general level of prices" or a specific price index, they may use weights that are different from the expenditure shares in the CPI or even their own consumption baskets (e.g., Kumar et al 2015). For example, households can assign a greater weight to energy prices than is justified by expenditure shares and, more generally, salient prices may be overweighted (D'Acunto et al 2021c). Finally, households commonly confuse changes and levels of prices: a much stronger relationship exists between inflation expectations and recent experienced price levels, as found in for the case of gasoline prices.…”

The Expected, Perceived, and Realized Inflation of U.S. Households before and during the COVID19 Pandemic

“…Third, when households construct their prediction for "the general level of prices" or a specific price index, they may use weights that are different from the expenditure shares in the CPI or even their own consumption baskets (e.g., Kumar et al 2015). For example, households can assign a greater weight to energy prices than is justified by expenditure shares and, more generally, salient prices may be overweighted (D'Acunto et al 2021c). Finally, households commonly confuse changes and levels of prices: a much stronger relationship exists between inflation expectations and recent experienced price levels, as found in for the case of gasoline prices.…”