Using a US nationally representative online sample, we measure the level of knowledge on employment nondiscrimination laws. Although Americans are well informed about sex, race, and disability being protected characteristics, only about 71 percent think that sexual orientation is a protected characteristic. Sexual minorities are as uninformed as heterosexual individuals that sexual orientation is legally protected from employment discrimination. Furthermore, sexual minorities living in states that did not previously have statewide employment nondiscrimination protections prior to the 2020 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County are less likely to think that sexual orientation is a protected characteristic.

We analyze differences in mode of transportation to work by sexual orientation, using the American Community Survey 2008-2019. Working individuals in same-sex couples are significantly less likely to drive to work than working men and women in different-sex couples. This gap is particularly stark among men: on average, almost 12 percentage point (or 13%) lower likelihood of driving to work for men in same-sex couples. Working individuals in same-sex couples are also more likely to use public transport, walk, or bike to work. Men and women are 7 and 3 percentage points more likely, respectively, to take public transportation to work than those in different-sex couples. Working men are also more likely to work from home-while working women are less likely-than those in different-sex couples. These differences persist after controlling for demographic characteristics, partner's characteristics, location, fertility, marital status, occupation or industry, and family income. Additional evidence from the General Social Survey 2008-2018 suggests that these disparities by sexual orientation may be due to lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals valuing the environment more than straight individuals.

Public attitudes and policies toward LGBTQ individuals have improved substantially in recent decades. Economists are actively shaping the discourse around these policies and contributing to our understanding of the economic lives of LGBTQ individuals. In this paper, we present the most up-to-date estimates of the size, location, demographic characteristics, and family structures of LGBTQ individuals in the United States. We describe an emerging literature on the effects of legal access to same-sex marriage on family and socioeconomic outcomes. We also summarize what is known about the size, direction, and sources of wage differentials related to variation in sexual orientation and gender identity. We conclude by describing a range of open questions in LGBTQ economics.

A large body of research documents that the 2010 dependent coverage mandate
of the Affordable Care Act was responsible for significantly increasing health
insurance coverage among young adults. No prior research has examined whether
sexual minority young adults also benefitted from the dependent coverage
mandate, despite previous studies showing lower health insurance coverage among
sexual minorities and the fact that their higher likelihood of strained
relationships with their parents might predict a lower ability to use parental
coverage. Our estimates from the American Community Surveys using
difference-in-differences and event study models show that men in same-sex
couples age 21-25 were significantly more likely to have any health insurance
after 2010 compared to the associated change for slightly older 27 to
31-year-old men in same-sex couples. This increase is concentrated among
employer-sponsored insurance, and it is robust to permutations of time periods
and age groups. Effects for women in same-sex couples and men in different-sex
couples are smaller than the associated effects for men in same-sex couples.
These findings confirm the broad effects of expanded dependent coverage and
suggest that eliminating the federal dependent mandate could reduce health
insurance coverage among young adult sexual minorities in same-sex couples.

We provide nationally representative estimates of sexual minority representation in STEM fields by studying 142,641 men and women in same-sex couples from the 2009–2018 American Community Surveys. These data indicate that men in same-sex couples are 12 percentage points less likely to have completed a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field compared to men in different-sex couples. On the other hand, there is no gap observed for women in same-sex couples compared to women in different-sex couples. The STEM degree gap between men in same-sex and different-sex couples is larger than the STEM degree gap between all white and black men but is smaller than the gender gap in STEM degrees. We also document a smaller but statistically significant gap in STEM occupations between men in same-sex and different-sex couples, and we replicate this finding by comparing heterosexual and gay men using independently drawn data from the 2013–2018 National Health Interview Surveys. These differences persist after controlling for demographic characteristics, location, and fertility. Finally, we document that gay male representation in STEM fields (measured using either degrees or occupations) is systematically and positively associated with female representation in those same STEM fields.

This paper combines machine learning with economic theory in order to analyse high school dropout. It provides an algorithm to predict which students are going to drop out of high school by relying only on information from 9th grade. This analysis emphasizes that using a parsimonious early warning system – as implemented in many schools – leads to poor results. It shows that schools can obtain more precise predictions by exploiting the available high-dimensional data jointly with machine learning tools such as Support Vector Machine, Boosted Regression and Post-LASSO. Goodness-of-fit criteria are selected based on the context and the underlying theoretical framework: model parameters are calibrated by taking into account the policy goal – minimizing the expected dropout rate - and the school budget constraint. Finally, this study verifies the existence of heterogeneity through unsupervised machine learning by dividing students at risk of dropping out into different clusters.

We analyze revealed and stated household preferences for socially responsible investments (SRI). Using a questionnaire specifically designed for this purpose and administered to a Dutch representative household panel, we investigate the actual and latent demand for SRI products. Respondents reported whether they owned SRI products, the reason behind this decision, but also answered stated choice questions on traditional investments and hypothetical SR products with an explicit return penalty and/or an in-kind compensation. Our results show that social investors are willing to pay a price to be socially responsible rather than needing a little nudge, such as a gift (a book or a voucher). Highly educated individuals have a substantial latent demand that is currently unexploited. Keeping education constant, individuals who consider themselves financially literate are less interested in SR products than others. Particularly at the intensive margin, the stated demand for SRI funds is sensitive to the return penalty.

This paper shows that LGBT students in the U.S. are less likely to graduate from high school and attend college. These differences persist after controlling for demographic characteristics, family background, state and school fixed effects. Relatedly, LGBT students have lower educational expectations, a lower sense of school belonging, and are more likely to have been affected by discrimination.

This paper uses a unique dataset to analyse the migration dynamics of refugees, returnees and, internally displaced people from the Northern Mali conflict. Individuals were interviewed monthly using mobile phones. Our results cast light on the characteristics of these three groups before and after displacement. In addition, we test how employment and security were related to migration status, as well as the willingness to go back home. Individuals who were employed while displaced were less willing to go back to the North, while those who owned a gun were more likely to plan to go back. Additional indicators of personal safety played a lesser role.

This paper analyzes how the legalization of same-sex marriage in the U.S. affected same-sex couples in the labor market by using data from the American Community Survey. Access to marriage led to amendments in tax, health insurance, and adoption laws that could have encouraged some same-sex partners to specialize in household production and decrease their labor supply. Nevertheless, estimates from a difference-in-difference model show that the individual and joint probabilities of being employed increased among same-sex couples. Additional evidence suggests that these changes in employment were driven by improvements in attitudes and lower discrimination against sexual minorities following the introduction of marriage equality.

We compare the absolute and relative performance of three approaches to predicting outcomes for entrants in a business plan competition in Nigeria: Business plan scores from judges, simple ad-hoc prediction models used by researchers, and machine learning approaches. We find that i) business plan scores from judges are uncorrelated with business survival, employment, sales, or profits three years later; ii) a few key characteristics of entrepreneurs such as gender, age, ability, and business sector do have some predictive power for future outcomes; iii) modern machine learning methods do not offer noticeable improvements; iv) the overall predictive power of all approaches is very low, highlighting the fundamental difficulty of picking competition winners.

This article uses data from the U.S. High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to investigate the relationship between high school students’ beliefs about female abilities in math and science and their teacher gender, beliefs, and classroom behaviors. Estimates are obtained by comparing the same ninth graders between math and science classes, thus controlling for student fixed effects. Students were less likely to believe that men were better than women in math or science when assigned to female teachers or to teachers who valued and listened to ideas from their students. The empirical analysis also provides evidence suggesting that these gender beliefs were related to the decisions by female students to take advanced math and science classes in high school.

We analyze the relation between receiving an allowance (pocket money) in childhood and financial confidence in adulthood. We measure this confidence using self-reported financial knowledge. Our empirical exercise is based on information provided by a Dutch survey carried out in 2015. We compute our estimates by controlling for parental attitudes and by using a “within-family” fixed effect model. The results are robust and suggest a long-lasting effect of pocket money as an easily implementable and informal educational vehicle to help children acquire basic financial concepts and develop good habits, such as budgeting.

This work focuses on the impact of uncertainty on savings under bequest form. Specifically, we estimate whether and to what extent income variability does have an effect on post-mortem savings. We approximate the post-mortem savings with the closest dedicated savings, which is savings in term insurance, a lump sum inherited at the death of the subscriber. Furthermore, we test whether the intensity of the income variance or the riskiness of the job type—such as self-employment—matters more in the choice. Our results show that self-employment status is one of the most relevant variables affecting term insurance ownership.

This paper shows that high school math and science teacher gender affects student interest and self-efficacy in STEM. However, such effects become insignificant once teacher behaviors and attitudes are taken into account, thus pointing towards an omitted variables bias. Teacher beliefs about male and female ability in math and science – as well as how teachers treat boys and girls in the classroom – matter more than teacher's own gender. The student fixed effects estimates also highlight that creating a positive learning environment and making math and science interesting are pivotal in engaging students in these subjects.

We investigate whether lack of familiarity with the companies in the stock market index may contribute to a gender gap in stock market participation and risk taking. We consider the Netherlands because recent reforms have reduced the generosity of mandatory pension and social security arrangements and created the need for many employees to decide on how to allocate (pension) savings. Moreover, the gender gap in pensions in the Netherlands is above that of the OECD average. We construct a «pink» portfolio with stocks that are supposed to be more familiar to women (based on ads in widely read women magazines) and a «blue» one with stocks from the market index (AEX). We then ask members of the CentERpanel how they would allocate a certain amount of pension wealth between government bonds and a stock portfolio, whereby half of respondents, randomly selected, are given the pink portfolio and half the blue one as an alternative to bonds. Based on a set of limited dependent variable models, we find that familiarity is correlated to decision time for women, but it affects risk-taking only for women over 60. We do find a strong response order effect on risk taking, which moreover is larger for women than for men, and interpret the latter as reflecting a gender gap in confidence.