BlueSky Thinking Summary

Anna Tuchman and colleagues undertook a large-scale study of pricing and formulations of products marketed toward men and women, trying to debunk the idea of a "pink tax" on personal-care products.

They found that in many cases, higher prices for women's products are justified by different formulations.

The researchers scoured thousands of products across the United States to find, for example, deodorants and shampoos.

In this respect, they found the price differences were quite minimal when such products did indeed have similar ingredients and functionalities.

There are major implications here, in that this could mean that gender-based pricing, as often claimed, is not there.

It poses questions about consumers' preference and the wider societal expectations that influence these products.

It challenges a perceived pink tax's need for legislative action and underscores the complexity of pricing dynamics within the personal-care industry.