Working Paper: NBER ID: w26837
Authors: Francesco Dacunto; Ulrike Malmendier; Michael Weber
Abstract: Expectations about macro-finance variables, such as inflation, vary significantly across genders, even within the same household. We conjecture that traditional gender roles expose women and men to different economic signals in their daily lives, which in turn produce systematic variation in expectations. Using unique data on the contributions of men and women to household grocery chores, their resulting exposure to price signals, and their inflation expectations, we show that the gender expectations gap is tightly linked to participation in grocery shopping. We also document a gender gap in other economic expectations and discuss how it might affect economic choices.
Keywords: gender roles; inflation expectations; economic choices; gender expectations gap
JEL Codes: C90; D14; D84; E31; E52; G11
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| traditional gender roles (J16) | women's engagement in grocery shopping (L81) |
| women's engagement in grocery shopping (L81) | exposure to volatile grocery price changes (Q11) |
| exposure to volatile grocery price changes (Q11) | higher inflation expectations among women (J16) |
| grocery shopping participation (men) (D19) | gender expectations gap in inflation (J16) |
| exposure to different price signals (P22) | gender expectations gap in inflation (J16) |
| systematic gender differences in belief formation (J16) | economic choices and wealth accumulation (E21) |