Gay money

The truth about lesbian & gay economics

Bibliography and citations

I have read what I believe to be every English-language refereed article published on any topic vaguely related to lesbian and gay economics, many popular-press articles, and most books on “gay marketing.” That’s about 70 articles and just under a dozen books.

What do 70 research papers look like?

Hand holding eight-inch stack of papers with coloured alligator clips and Post-Its

Spreadsheet summarizing research with numerical results

I produced an Excel spreadsheet (.XLS) summarizing the main points of nearly all research papers that included numerical results (like actual dollar values for earnings and income).

Open-source fanatics can just load up this file in OpenOffice or otherwise handle it themselves. I’ve done enough work already.

Start here

Start with M.V. Lee Badgett’s classic book Money, Myths and Change, available at many libraries and easily Amazonable.

Bookmarks and blog entries

You can read bookmarks, photos, and blog entries tagged with the only-somewhat-risqué neologism “fagonomics.”

Articles read

  1. Antecol, Heather, Anneke Jong, and Michael Steinberger (2007). “The Sexual Orientation Wage Gap: The Role of Occupational Sorting and Human Capital.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 61(4)
  2. Arabsheibani, G. Reza, Alan Marin, and Jonathan Jadsworth (2007). “Variations in Gay Pay in the USA and in the UK.” In Sexual Orientation Discrimination: An International Perspective, M.V. Lee Badgett and Jefferson Frank, eds. (ISBN 9780415770248) +UK
  3. Arabsheibani, G. Reza, Alan Marin, and Jonathan Wadsworth (2006). “Gay Pay in the U.K..” CentrePiece, Summer 2006 +UK
  4. Arabsheibani, G. Reza, Alan Marin, and Jonathan Jadsworth (2004). “In the pink: Homosexual–heterosexual wage differentials in the U.K.” International Journal of Manpower 25(3/4):343–354 +UK
  5. Ahmed, Ali M., and Mats Hammarstedt (2010). “Sexual orientation and earnings: A register-data-based approach to identify homosexuals.” Journal of Population Economics 23(3):835–849 +kids +Sweden
  6. Allegretto, Sylvia A., and Michelle M. Arthur (2001). “An Empirical Analysis of Homosexual/Heterosexual Male Earnings Differentials: Unmarried and Unequal?” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 54(3):631–646
  7. Ash, Michael A., and M.V. Lee Badgett (2006). “Separate and Unequal: The Effect of Unequal Access to Employment-Based Health Insurance on Same-sex and Unmarried Different-Sex Couples.” Contemporary Economic Policy 24(4):582–599 +kids
  8. Badgett, M.V. Lee (1992). “The Economics of Sexual Orientation: Establishing a Research Agenda.” Feminist Studies 18(3)
  9. Badgett, M.V. Lee (1995). “The Wage Effects of Sexual Orientation Discrimination.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 48(4):726–739 +singles
  10. Badgett, M.V. Lee (1997a). “Beyond Biased Samples: Challenging the Myths on the Economic Status of Lesbians and Gay Men.” In Homo Economics: Capitalism, Community, and Lesbian and Gay Life, Amy Gluckman, Betsy Reed, eds. (ISBN 0415913799)
  11. Badgett, M.V. Lee (1997b). “Lesbian and Gay Occupational Strategies.” In Homo Economics: Capitalism, Community, and Lesbian and Gay Life, Amy Gluckman, Betsy Reed, eds. (ISBN 0415913799) +singles
  12. Badgett, M.V. Lee (1997c). “A Queer Marketplace: Books on Lesbian and Gay Consumers, Workers, and Investors.” Feminist Studies 23(3):607–632
  13. Badgett, M.V. Lee, Holning Lau, Brad Sears, and Deborah Ho (2007). “Bias in the Workplace: Consistent Evidence of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination.” Williams Institute, UCLA
  14. Badgett, M.V. Lee (1998). “Income inflation: The myth of affluence among gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans.” Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund +singles
  15. Badgett, M.V. Lee (2006). “Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation: A Review of the Literature in Economics and Beyond.” In Handbook on the Economics of Discrimination, William M. Rodgers III, ed. (ISBN 9781849800129)
  16. Badgett, M.V. Lee (2008a). “The Double-Edged Sword in Gay Economic Life: Marriage and the Market.” Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice 15(1):109–128
  17. Badgett, M.V. Lee, Gary J. Gates, and Natalya C. Maisel (2008b). “Registered domestic partnerships among gay men and lesbians: The role of economic factors.” Review of Economics of the Household 6(4):327–346 +singles +kids
  18. Berg, Nathan, and Donald Lien (2002). “Measuring the effect of sexual orientation on income: Evidence of discrimination?” Contemporary Economic Policy 20(4):394–414 +kids
  19. Berkhout, Peter and Plug, Erik (2008). “Sexual Orientation, Disclosure and Earnings.” IZA Discussion Papers 3290, Institute for the Study of Labor +singles +Netherlands
  20. Black, Dan A., Gary Gates, and Seth Sanders (2000), “Demographics of the Gay and Lesbian Population in the United States: Evidence from Available Systematic Data Sources.” Demography 37(2) +singles +kids
  21. Black, Dan A., Hoda R. Makar, Seth G. Sanders, and Lowell J. Taylor (2003). “The earnings effects of sexual orientation.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 56(3):449–469
  22. Black, Dan A., Seth G. Sanders, and Lowell J. Taylor (2007). “The Economics of Lesbian and Gay Families.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2007, 21(2):53–70 +singles +kids
  23. Black, Dan (2002). “Why Do Gay Men Live in San Francisco?” Journal of Urban Economics 51(1):54–76
  24. Blandford, John M. (2003). “The Nexus of Sexual Orientation and Gender in the Determination of Earnings.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 56(4) +singles +kids
  25. Carpenter, Christopher (2004). “New Evidence on Gay and Lesbian Household Incomes.” Contemporary Economic Policy 22(1):78–94 +kids
  26. Carpenter, Christopher S. (2005). “Self-Reported Sexual Orientation and Earnings: Evidence from California.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 58(2):258–273 +singles +kids
  27. Carpenter, Christopher (2007a). “Revisiting the income penalty for behaviorally gay men: Evidence from NHANES III.” Labour Economics 14(1):25–34 +singles
  28. Carpenter, Christopher (2007b). “Sexual orientation and outcomes in college.” Economics of Education Review 28(6):693–703 +singles
  29. Carpenter, Christopher S. (2008). “Sexual orientation, work, and income in Canada.” Canadian Journal of Economics 41(4):1239–1261 +singles +kids +Canada
  30. Carpenter, Christopher (2008). “Sexual orientation, income, and non-pecuniary economic outcomes: New evidence from young lesbians in Australia.” Review of Economics of the Household 6(4):391–408 +singles +kids +Australia
  31. Carpenter, Christopher, and Samuel T. Eppink (2017). “Does It Get Better? Recent Estimates of Sexual Orientation and Earnings in the United States.” Southern Economic Journal 84(2):426–441 +premium2017
  32. Chinn, Sarah E. (2006). “Here, Queer, and Going Shopping.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 12(1):150–152
  33. Clain, Suzanne Heller, and Karen Leppel (2001). “An investigation into sexual orientation discrimination as an explanation for wage differences.” Applied Economics 33(1):37–47
  34. Clarke, Geoffrey A., and Purvi Sevak (2013). “The disappearing gay income penalty.” Economics Letters 121(3):542–545 +premium2017
  35. Daneshvary, Nasser, C. Waddoups, and Bradley Wimmer (2008). “Educational Attainment and the Lesbian Wage Premium.” Journal of Labor Research 29(4):365–379 +kids
  36. Daneshvary, Nasser, C. J. Waddoups, and B. S. Wimmer (2009). “Previous Marriage and the Lesbian Wage Premium.” Industrial Relations 48(3):432–453 +kids
  37. Elliott, Stuart (1990). “Advertisers bypass gay market.” USA Today 1990.07.17, p. 1B
  38. Frank, Jeff (2006). “Gay Glass Ceilings.” Economica 73(291):485–508 +UK
  39. Frank, Jefferson (2007). “Is the male marriage premium evidence of discrimination against gay men?” In Sexual Orientation Discrimination: An International Perspective, M.V. Lee Badgett and Jefferson Frank, eds. (ISBN 9780415770248)
  40. Douglas L. Fugate, (1993) “Evaluating the US male homosexual and lesbian population as viable target-market segment: review with implications.” Journal of Consumer Marketing 10(4):46–57
  41. Elmslie, Bruce, and Edinaldo Tebaldi (2007). “Sexual Orientation and Labor Market Discrimination.” Journal of Labor Research 28:436–453 +kids
  42. Gates, Gary M. (2010). “Demographic Perspectives on Same-Sex Couples.” Williams Insitute (PDF)
  43. Gluckman, Amy, and Betsy Reed (1997). “The gay marketing moment.” In Martin Duberman, ed., A Queer World: The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (ISBN 0814718744)
  44. Horovitz,Bruce (1998). “Report counters belief gays earn more.” USA Today 1998.12.03 or 1998.03.12 (undefined date format in original: “12/03/98”)
  45. Inman, Katherine (2002). “Money, Myths and Change: The Economic Lives of Lesbians and Gay Men by M.V. Lee Badgett.” Gender & Society 16(4):564–572
  46. Janensch, Gail (1998). “The Untapped Gay and Lesbian Online Market.” AIM Research Update Service, 1998.10.22
  47. Jepsen, Lisa Kay (2007). “Comparing the Earnings of Cohabiting Lesbians, Cohabiting Heterosexual Women, and Married Women: Evidence from the 2000 Census.” Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society 46(4):699–727 +kids
  48. Klawitter, Marieka M. (1998). “Why Aren’t More Economists Doing Research on Sexual Orientation?” Feminist Economics 4(2):55–59
  49. Klawitter, Marieka (2014). “Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Sexual Orientation on Earnings.” Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society 54(1):4–32 (PDF)
  50. Lafrance, Amélie, Casey Warman and Frances Woolley (2009). “Sexual Identity and the Marriage Premium.” Working Papers 1219, Queen’s University, Department of Economics +singles +kids +Canada
  51. Leppel, Karen (2009). “Labour Force Status and Sexual Orientation.” Economica 76(301):197–207
  52. Lewis, Gregory B. (2009). “Gay-straight pay disparities in the public and private sectors.” Unpublished paper, Georgia State University (earlier PDF)
  53. Martell, Michael E. (2010). “Why do homosexual men earn less than heterosexual men, despite an invisible minority trait?”
  54. Melloy, Kilian (2010). “D.C. Leads in Gay, Mass. in Lesbian, Households.” Edge Boston, 2010.11.02
  55. Miller, Cyndee (1990). “Gays are affluent but often-overlooked market.” Marketing News 1990.12.24
  56. Miller, Cyndee (1992). “Two new firms market exclusively to gays.” Marketing News 1992.07.20
  57. Miller, Cyndee (1992). “Mainstream marketers decide time is right to target gays.” Marketing News 1992.07.20
  58. Mize, Trenton D. (2016). “Sexual orientation in the labor market.” American Sociological Review 81(6):1132–1160
  59. Mulryan, David (1995). “Reaching the gay market.” American Demographics, May
  60. Mueller, Richard E. (2007). “Straight Pay for the Queer Guy? Earnings Differentials of Males and Females in Same-sex Couples in Canada.” SSRN Abstract 991312 +kids +Canada
  61. NCFMR (2010). “Same-Sex Couple Households in the U.S., 2009.” National Center for Family & Marriage Research, Bowling Green State University, October 2010 [FP-10-08 (PDF)]
  62. Negrusa, Brighita, and Sonia Oreffice (2010). “Sexual orientation and household savings: do homosexual couples save more?” Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas working paper
  63. Oakenfull, Gillian, and Timothy Greenlee (2004). “The three rules of crossing over from gay media to mainstream media advertising: lesbians, lesbians, lesbians.” Journal of Business Research 57(11):1276–1285
  64. Ordover, Nancy (2002). “Assimilation and its discontents.” Women’s Review of Books 19(5):28
  65. Peñaloza, Lisa (1996). “We’re Here, We’re Queer, and We’re Going Shopping! A Critical Perspective on the Accommodation of Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Marketplace.” Journal of Homosexuality 31(1&2):9–41. In Queer Economics: A Reader, Joyce Jacobsen, Adam Zeller, eds. (ISBN 9780415771696)
  66. Peplau, L.A., and A. Fingerhut (2004). “The paradox of the lesbian worker.” Journal of Social Issues 60(4):719–735
  67. Philipp, Steven F. (1999). “Gay and Lesbian Tourists at a Southern USA Beach Event.” Journal of Homosexuality 37(3):69–86 +singles
  68. Phua, Voon Chin, and Gayle Kaufman (1999). “Using the census to profile same-sex cohabitation: A research note.” Population Research and Policy Review 18(4):373–386. In Queer Economics: A Reader, Joyce Jacobsen, Adam Zeller, eds. (ISBN 9780415771696)
  69. Plug, Erik, and Peter Berkhout (2004). “Effects of sexual preferences on earnings in the Netherlands.” Journal of Population Economics 17(1):117–131 +singles +Netherlands
  70. Prokos, Anastasia H., and Jennifer Reid Keene (2010). “Poverty Among Cohabiting Gay and Lesbian, and Married and Cohabiting Heterosexual Families.” Journal of Family Issues 31(7):934–959 +kids
  71. Rauch, Jonathan (1993). “Beyond Oppression.” New Republic 1993.05.10
  72. Rothblum, Esther D., Kimberly F. Balsam, Sondra E. Solomon, and Rhonda J. Factor (2007). “Lesbian, gay male, bisexual, and heterosexual siblings: Discrepancies in income and education in three U.S. samples.” In Sexual Orientation Discrimination: An International Perspective, M.V. Lee Badgett and Jefferson Frank, eds. (ISBN 9780415770248)
  73. Schwartz, Joe (1992). “Gay consumers come out spending.” American Demographics, April
  74. Strub, Sean (1997). “The growth of the gay and lesbian market.” In Martin Duberman, ed., A Queer World: The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (ISBN 0814718744)
  75. Tebaldi, Edinaldo, and Bruce Elmslie (2006). “Sexual orientation and labour supply.” Applied Economics 38:549–562
  76. U.S. Bureau of the Census (2010). “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2010.”
  77. Wetzstein, Cheryl (2010). “D.C. tops in gay-male households.” Washington Times 2010.11.01
  78. Weekes, Richard V. (1989). “Gay dollars.” American Demographics, October
  79. Williams Institute (2010). “New Census Bureau data show annual increases in same-sex couples outpacing population growth; same-sex couples affected by recession.” 2010.10.04 (PDF)
  80. Witeck, Bob (2009). “Ending Employment Discrimination in America: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics about America’s LGBT Families.”
  81. Woods, James (1997). “The different dilemmas of lesbian and gay professionals.” In Martin Duberman, ed., A Queer World: The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (ISBN 0814718744)
  82. Zavodny, Madeline (2008). “Is there a ‘marriage premium’ for gay men?” Review of Economics of the Household 6(4):369–389 +singles

Off-topic articles

  1. Badgett, M.V. Lee (2004). “Asking the Right Questions: Making a Case for Sexual Orientation Data.” Proceedings of American Statistical Association (2004)
  2. Badgett, M.V. Lee (1994). “Equal Pay for Equal Families.” Academe, May/June 1994
  3. Badgett, M.V. Lee (2007). “The Impact on Maryland’s Budget of Allowing Same-Sex Couples to Marry.” University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class 7(2):295–339
  4. Badgett, M.V. Lee (2006). “Supporting Families, Saving Funds: An Economic Analysis of Equality for Same-sex Couples in New Jersey.” Rutgers Journal of Law & Public Policy 4(1)
  5. Fitzgerald, Jenrose (2002). “Querying Sexual Economy: The Cultural Politics of Sexuality and Class in the United States.” American Quarterly 54(2):349–357
  6. Mindshare (undated). “Getting to know America’s gay, lesbian, bisexual population: A proprietary study by MindShare and the Poux Company”
  7. Prime Access, Inc. and Rivendell Media Co., Inc. (2010). 2009 Gay Press Report

Books

Books read

  1. The ur-text of this field: Money, Myths, and Change: The Economic Lives of Lesbians and Gay Men by M.V. Lee Badgett

  2. Cracking the Corporate Closet by Daniel B. Baker, Sean O’Brien Strub, Bill Henning

  3. Selling Out: The Gay and Lesbian Movement Goes to Market by Alexandra Chasin

  4. Queer Economics: A Reader, Joyce Jacobsen, Adam Zeller, eds.

  5. Twenty Million New Customers! Understanding Gay Men’s Consumer Behavior by Steven M. Kates

  6. Untold Millions: Secret Truths About Marketing to Gay and Lesbian Consumers by Grant Lukenbill

  7. Gay Issues in the Workplace by Brian McNaught

  8. Business, Not Politics: The Making of the Gay Market by Katherine Sender

  9. Gays, Lesbians, and Consumer Behavior: Theory, Practice, and Research Issues In Marketing by Daniel L. Wardlow

  10. Straight Talk About Gays in the Workplace by Liz Winfeld

  11. The Corporate Closet: The Professional Lives of Gay Men in America by James D. Woods

Books requested but unread

  1. The 100 Best Companies for Gay Men and Lesbians by Ed Mickens
  2. Straight Jobs, Gay Lives: Gay and Lesbian Professionals, the Harvard Business School, and the American Workplace by Annette Friskopp, Sharon Silverstein
  3. Business Inside Out: Capturing Millions of Brand-Loyal Gay Consumers by Robert Witeck

Theses

Thesis read

Tsai, Wan-Hsiu Sunny (2006). What Does It Mean to Be Gay in American Consumer Culture? Gay Advertising and Gay Consumers: A Cultural-Studies Perspective. University of Texas at Austin

Theses unread

  1. Comolli, Renzo (2005). Economics of Sexual Orientation and Racial Perception
  2. Gates, Gary (2000). Essays on the Demographics and Location Patterns of Coupled Gay Men
  3. Sender, Katherine Elizabeth (2001). Producing the Gay Market: Sex, Sexuality, and the Gay Professional-Managerial Class

Posted: 2010.11.16 ¶ Updated: 2017.10.25 13:07, 2021.06.28