Yasemin Dildar

Who they are

Yasemin Dildar co-wrote the 2020 paper 'Social and psychological determinants of consumption: Evidence for the lipstick effect during the Great Recession' with Daniel MacDonald. The published record consulted here is the abstract and the journal citation, so this page covers what the paper reports and says nothing about the author's career, institution or other publications, none of which has been verified.

Key papers

MacDonald, D., & Dildar, Y. (2020). Social and psychological determinants of consumption: Evidence for the lipstick effect during the Great Recession. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 86, 101527.

The authors used the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey to test the lipstick effect, using the Great Recession as a case study. They report that cosmetics spending rose significantly among women aged 18 to 40, and that the increase held regardless of marital or employment status.

Key ideas

The rise in cosmetics spending among women aged 18 to 40 held regardless of marital or employment status, which argues against explanations in which women buy cosmetics to attract a partner or to protect their jobs.

The authors find support instead for the view that the effect comes from women cutting back on clothing purchases.

The result is a spending finding about one group of women, measured in household expenditure records. It is not an experiment, and it does not speak to men.

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