Gender price gaps and competition: Evidence from a correspondence study

Margarita Machelett

No 2333, Working Papers from Banco de España

Abstract: This paper describes a large-scale field experiment conducted in the US auto repair industry to study the existence and structure of gender-based price discrimination in service markets. Women receive price quotes that are 2% (over 10 dollars) higher than those received by men. These differences disappear when women signal low search costs, suggesting statistical rather than taste-based discrimination. Price requests that appear to come from high-income households raise quotes for men but not women, eliminating the gender gap. The price gap also falls with the number of nearby repair shops, suggesting that market competition alleviates gender-based price discrimination.

Keywords: competition; discrimination; field experiment; gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D4 J16 J18 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 71 pages
Date: 2023-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-exp, nep-gen and nep-lab
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bde:wpaper:2333

DOI: 10.53479/34747

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