Gender-Specific Economic Shocks and Household Bargaining Power

Using machine learning and product-level data on single men’s and single women’s consumption patterns, we develop an index that quantifies the “gendered” nature of consumer goods. We use the index to investigate how gender-specific labor market shocks influence spending patterns within heterosexual households. Our findings reveal that industrial robot adoption, which worsened men’s relative economic position, shifted household consumption toward products predominantly purchased by single women. In contrast, the expansion of fracking, which boosted demand for young and less skilled men, yields suggestive but less robust evidence of increased spending on goods favored by single men. Although neither shock significantly altered total spending on children’s products, robot exposure led to a reallocation of spending toward goods more commonly purchased for daughters than for sons.