More on gender-based pricing...

The Ontario legislature awaits a committe report on a bill that bans so-called gender-based pricing. The author of the private members bill believes that women pay more for a wide variety of good and services. Today's National Post has a good op-ed on why this isn't so.

If "gender-based price discrimination" were rampant, it would be apparent in one component of Statistics Canada's consumer price index that is cateogorized on the basis of sex - men's and women's clothing. But a look at price movements shows no appreciable differences in the two series. Women's clothing that cost $100 in 1982 now costs $148, while for men the cost has risen to $151. Possibly this is evidence that the level of discrimination faced by women has not changed in 3- years; if there is such collusion, OPEC should take notes. But if women's clothing retailers were more effective colludes when men's, it seems fair to wonder why they might not have sought to raise prices by more than men's.