Underwear and uncertainty: What wardrobe purchases could tell us about economic health, UTampa professor says

TAMPA, Fla. - A professor with The University of Tampa said unique metrics, like men's underwear sales, can provide insight into the health of the economy.

"The students absolutely love real-world examples, and they like seeing how economics translates off of the things that we typically put on the blackboard," Dr. Abby Hall, an associate professor of economics at The University of Tampa, told FOX 13. "And so, when we're talking about things like GDP declines, that probably doesn't resonate with – not just students – but most people. But if you start talking about things like, well, what kinds of goods are you going to cut back on if your budget is tight?"

The backstory:

"One of the things that we're really contending with is a lot of uncertainty," Hall said when speaking about the