A groundbreaking study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and the University of California, Irvine, led by Molly Maloney and David Neumark, delves into whether explicit misogyny is a key driver of the gender wage gap. Unlike prior research that focused on statistical discrimination or implicit biases, the study uses an innovative approach, Google Trends data to quantify misogyny and measure its economic impact. The findings reveal a strong and statistically significant connection between regional misogyny levels and wage disparities, even after adjusting for education, work experience, and industry type. This challenges long-standing economic theories that assume competitive markets eliminate taste-based discrimination, highlighting how deep-seated prejudices continue to influence labor market outcomes.
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