(Bloomberg) -- Women trust the Bank of England less than men and feel more squeezed by cost-of-living shocks, new research shows, underlining the challenge facing the central bank to improve its public reputation.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Fewer women are satisfied with the performance of the BOE, according to the study, which was carried out by academics at the University of Oxford using data from a quarterly survey of household attitudes to inflation.
The report, set to be published by the National Institute Economic Review, was led by Michael McMahon, an Oxford professor of economics who advises central banks on their communications. McMahon worked with then-BOE chief economist Andy Haldane when rate-setters were facing a confidence crisis in the aftermath of the financial crash.
The BOE is once again trying to recover public trust after its aggressive interest-rate hiking cycle in response to the price shocks unleashed by the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent satisfaction levels to record lows. Inflation has fallen sharply from its peak but resurgent energy and food costs now threaten to push it back above 3%.
Policymakers have cut rates only twice since August and signaled a “gradual” approach to further easing amid threats to inflation from wage growth and services prices. Investors expect a quarter-point cut from the BOE on Feb. 6, one of only three anticipated this year.
Part of the reason why women have a more negative view of the BOE lies in how they respond to inflation, according to the analysis, which controls for factors like age and income.
When faced with soaring prices, women tightened their budgets by saving more and shopping around in search of discounts. Men, on the other hand, simply ask for higher pay.
“Women feel more financially squeezed while men may try to proactively avoid financial losses due to inflation,” McMahon and co-author Lovisa Reiche wrote.
This difference in approach has widened “substantially” since the pandemic, the authors said, suggesting men were the main beneficiaries of the strong wage growth of recent years. The study also found that women have slightly higher inflation perceptions and are more worried about price rises than men.
As women tend to be the ones responsible for the weekly shop, they are usually the first to feel the effects of inflation.