The Pink Tax: An Exploratory Study
Gender-based pricing examined through secondary data on product pricing, marketing and packaging.
Methods Secondary data analysis, Comparative product pricing
The “pink tax” is the observation that products marketed to women often cost more than near-identical products marketed to men. This paper took that claim seriously enough to check it, using secondary data on product pricing, marketing and packaging across comparable product pairs.
The exploratory framing was deliberate. Before arguing about whether gendered pricing is discrimination or segmentation, it is worth establishing carefully where the gap actually appears and where it does not — packaging and marketing spend explain part of it, and the residual is the part worth arguing about.
My first piece of independent research. Awarded a Certificate of Appreciation for research originality and relevance.