Did you know that women’s and men’s apparel are subject to different taxes? You’re NEVER GOING TO GUESS who @dianazobrien, (twitterless) Timm Betz, and I find is harmed by those differences…

https://tinyurl.com/y3wzcbuu  (FREE!! and SHORT!)

@apsrjournal

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The main system used to classify import/export goods and set tariffs distinguishes apparel by the gender of the target consumer. This allows countries to set different import taxes on women's and men's clothing. Example:

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On average these gendered tariffs penalize women consumers (of course) and contribute to the "pink tax," the endpoint price discrimination that women suffer across a wide array products and services around the world

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Across 167 countries between 1995 and 2015, we estimate that women's goods are taxed 0.7% more than men's goods that are identical in material and form, save the target gender of the endpoint consumer. The cross-national averages:

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How does this tax discrimination come to be? Lots of different reasons. But our analysis is quite conclusive that they PERSIST in large part due to the underrepresentation of women in government

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Examining women's legislative seat shares within and across countries (and the plausibly causal effect of imposing gender quotas) we estimate that women's underrepresentation leads to an additional $15B (!!) annual tax burden on women’s apparel in democracies alone

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In other words: descriptive representation has a substantial, direct impact on discriminatory policies and the lived experience of the governed. Even in advanced democracies, underrepresented groups can easily be economically exploited

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We think that there's a lot of good work to be done at the intersection of representation and political economy, especially in reference to trade, and hope that the lines between CPE/IPE and race/gender research continue to blur

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Finally, working with friends is great, especially when everyone gets forced outside their comfort zone a bit to find something new.

I would also like to note that the team of @dianazobrien, Timm, and myself has a perfect gamenight record

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