Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Financially Fabulous

Kristen White
Mrs. Straub
AP Economics
28 October 2014
Financially Fabulous
Why predict how the economy is doing with boring statistics and facts when you can use average height of women’s heels? Recent studies have proven feminine attire to be an excellent indicator of economic health. A classic example is the Hemline Theory, suggesting that skirts hemlines get higher as the economy gets better. The most recent economic indicator is the average height of women’s heels, proving to be the most accurate of all indicators ever discovered. As we advance our technology and intelligence, we also advance in our accuracy to predict the economic climate. However, there have been some discrepancies between American studies and English studies.
IBM performed a four year study and found that as the economy falls, women’s heel height goes up.  The proposed explanation for this phenomenon is that as the economy declines, women’s self esteem falls as well. Therefore, to raise their self esteem, women want to stand out and wear higher heels. The demand for high heels increases because women wish to “escape to fantasy” during times of a financial crisis to keep their spirits up, making the rise and fall of the economy a determinant of demand. IBM found that at those times of financial crisis, the average heel height skyrocketed up to 7 inches tall, and then as the economy got better the median height dropped to 3 inches tall. So now, since smaller heels are back in style, and since average heel height is the most accurate indicator of the economy to date, this means the economy is doing better.
While IBM found that as the economy declines heel height increases, a study in the UK found that as the health of the economy improves, the average heel height increases. So, they believe that as there is more money for women to spend, the demand for higher heels increases. Therefore, heels become a normal good, as women have more money they will buy pumps instead of flats. I agree more with the study from the UK more than the study by IBM because I believe it makes more sense that as they have more money, women will buy higher heels. A positive externality of the economy improving is that women are wearing higher heels and being more confident. Consumer tastes change based on the latest fashion, and the latest fashion of heels changes based on the health of the economy.
An explanation as to why women wear higher heels when the economy is better is because of the places they would wear high heel shoes. As you can see, the main place to wear high heel shoes to is work, and if the economy is doing well then more people are employed, thus more women working and wearing heels. As for dinner or a party or many other reasons, if the economy is better then there is more money for women to spend on such activities, increasing the amount of high heel shoes worn and increasing the average height of women’s heels.

Works Cited
“High Heels Are New Economic Indicator, IB Analysis Shows.” Huff Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23 Nov. 2011. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.
London, Bianca. “The Footsie Index!” Mail Online. Associated Newspaper Ltd, 19 Mar. 2013. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.

2 comments:

  1. Kristen, this is an interesting phenomenon where the heel height of women is both directly and inversely related to the health of the economy. I would be interested to find out who was surveyed for these studies, because that would likely begin to explain how exactly different results occurred for more or less the same survey.

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  2. Kristen, I love how you combined fashion and economics in this post. It is really interesting how in two different studies, heel heights seem to tell of thriving and poor economies. Originally, I would have guessed that higher heels would mean a healthy economy as incomes rise thus causing an increase in demand of shoes as a normal good, but it also makes sense in the American study about the self esteem in a poor economy. Anyhow, I will be sure to remember this post the next time I go shoe shopping.

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