• 2024
• Working Paper

The growing participation of women in the labor market has marked a significant societal transformation, coinciding with the rise of gender conservatism and far-right support. We study whether the economic consequences of labor market feminization and gender backlash are causally connected beyond other well-known factors, such as cultural change. Using Swiss panel data and a novel shift-share instrument measuring men’s exposure to changes in the gender composition of the labor force across industries (labor market feminization), we make two contributions. First, labor market feminization negatively affects men’s income and employment prospects, making men more conservative in their gender attitudes. Second, while labor market feminization affects gender attitudes within the private sphere, in a context of low politicization of gender by political elites, it does not influence broader political outcomes like policy preferences or far-right voting. These findings reveal the sequence and mechanisms behind the distributional consequences of labor market feminization.

• November 2024
• Article

We study how within-store price variation changes with inflation, and whether households exploit it to attenuate the inflation burden. We use micro price data for food products sold by 91 large multi-channel retailers in ten countries between 2018 and 2024. Measuring unit prices within narrowly defined product categories, we analyze two key sources of variation in prices within a store: temporary price discounts and differences across similar products. Price changes associated with discounts grew at a much lower average rate than regular prices, helping to mitigate the inflation burden. By contrast, cheapflation -a faster rise in prices of cheaper goods relative to prices of more expensive varieties of the same good-exacerbated it. Using Canadian Homescan Panel Data, we estimate that spending on discounts reduced the change in the average unit price by 4.1 percentage points, but expenditure switching to cheaper brands raised it by 2.8 percentage points.

• October 2024
• Case

In June 2024, Roberto Vedovotto, CEO of Kering Eyewear, prepared to discuss the future of the recently acquired brands LINDBERG, a Danish optical eyewear brand, and Maui Jim, an American sunglasses brand. Vedovotto founded Kering Eyewear in 2014, convincing François-Henri Pinault to internalize eyewear production for Kering’s luxury brands like Gucci and Saint Laurent. Kering could in this way control design, quality, and distribution of its eyewear products. In the following years, following an agreement with the luxury group Richemont, which became a co-owner, Kering Eyewear also included four Richemont eyewear brands, among which the high-end one Cartier. By 2024, Kering Eyewear was the second-largest eyewear manufacturer, generating 1.5 billion in revenue. However, slowing growth in China’s luxury market was expected to impact sunglasses sales, which accounted for 70% of its business. Vedovotto now faced the challenge of managing and growing a portfolio of brands, which included house brands and eyewear-only brands.