diff --git a/pandas/core/frame.py b/pandas/core/frame.py
index b4e8b4e3a6bec..402d209779fda 100644
--- a/pandas/core/frame.py
+++ b/pandas/core/frame.py
@@ -372,7 +372,7 @@ def _constructor_expanddim(self):
     def __init__(self, data=None, index=None, columns=None, dtype=None,
                  copy=False):
         if data is None:
-            data = {}
+            data = dict()
         if dtype is not None:
             dtype = self._validate_dtype(dtype)