Is Inflation Sexist?
By Dan Pritch
Apparently, it is. In a recent BusinessWeek article, David Rosenberg, chief economist for Merill Lynch, revealed the results of his efforts to discern any disparity between the sexes for consumer goods and services they each tend to spend more money on. For instance, for men, he looked at sporting goods, TVs and auto parts; for women, cosmetics, jewelry and housekeeping. Of course, in the real world, there is plenty of overlap in purchasing patterns for the genders, but on an aggregate basis, this is the best data set that’s out there for this analysis.
What he found is that the rate of inflation for females is currently 18 times that of men, at 3.6% vs. 0.2%. This is an incredible statistic, but in context, it’s conceivable. He goes on to cite the increase in employment growth for women compared to men, increasing age of marriage and generally accepted spending patterns (If my wife’s spending is any indication, I think he’s on to something).
His conclusion on the inflationary differences is evidenced by accelerating price increases for jewelry and women’s clothing vs. steady performance or declining pricing for TVs and auto parts.
Why is this important? Well, if you’re a woman and your boss tells you to be happy with your 2.5% raise because you’re keeping up with inflation, this article would be a great one to hit them with. Additionally, for any investor interested in long term investments based on demographic growth, any female-centric high quality stock would be worth considering. For instance, going back a year, Coach (COH) has doubled the rate of return of the S&P500.
|
Everydayfinance Blog: http://www.everydayfinance.blogspot.com |
