M.V. Lee Badgett

M. V. Lee Badgett is a professor of economics and served as director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration (now the School of Public Policy) from 2007-16. She is also a faculty codirector of the Center for Employment Equity at UMass Amherst and a distinguished scholar at the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy at UCLA’s School of Law. Her most recent book, The Economic Case for LGBT Equality: How Fairness and Equality Benefit Us All, was published in 2020 by Beacon.  

Badgett’s book When Gay People Get Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage addresses the core issues in marriage debates in European countries and the US She drew on that work in her testimony in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial challenging California’s Proposition 8. Her other publications include journal articles and policy reports on employment discrimination, poverty, and marriage equality for LGBT people and on the economic cost of homophobia and transphobia. Her earlier books include The Public Professor: How to Use Your Research to Change the World and Money, Myths, and Change: The Economic Lives of Lesbians and Gay Men and the coedited Sexual Orientation Discrimination: An International Perspective. She also recently worked with the United Nations Development Program to develop the global LGBTI Inclusion Index and is a technical advisor to the World Bank. 

She has a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley and an AB in economics from the University of Chicago.

Pronouns: she/her

Research interests

labor economics, employment discrimination, economics of sexual orientation and gender identity, economic empowerment

Professional Experience: 

• Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Director, Center for Public Policy and Administration, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Research Director, Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, University of California, Los Angeles

Research Interests: 

• Labor Economics, Economics of Sexual Orientation

Selected Publications: 

Books

• The Public Professor: How to Use Your Research to Change the World, NYU Press, 2016.
• When Gay People Get Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage, New York University Press,
• 2009. Distinguished Book Award, American Psychological Assoc., Division 44, 2010; Korean translation published, Minumsa, 2016.
• When Gay People Get Married, NYU Press, 2009
• Money, Myths, and Change: The Economic Lives of Lesbians and Gay Men, University of Chicago Press, 2001

Journal Articles

• Alyssa Schneebaum and M. V. Lee Badgett, “Poverty in Lesbian and Gay Couple Households,” 2017, accepted, Feminist Economics.
• Badgett, M. V. Lee, and Philip Crehan (2017), “Developing Actionable Research Priorities for LGBTI Inclusion,” Journal of Research in Gender Studies 7(1): 218–247.
• “Same-Sex Legal Marriage and Psychological Well-Being: Findings From the California Health Interview Survey,” Richard
• G. Wight, Allen J. LeBlanc, and M. V. Lee Badgett, American Journal of Public Health, February 2013, Vol. 103, No. 2, 339-346.
• “Separated and Not Equal: Binational Same-Sex Couples,” Signs, Vol. 36, No. 4, Summer 2011, 793-798.
• “Social Inclusion and the Value of Marriage Equality in Massachusetts and the Netherlands,” Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 67, No. 2, 2011, pp. 316-334.
• “The Economic Value of Marriage for Same-sex Couples,” Drake Law Review, Vol. 58, No. 4, 2010, pp 1081-1116.
• “Bias in the Workplace: Consistent Evidence of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination 1998-2008,” M.V. Lee
• Badgett, Brad Sears, Holning Lau, and Deborah Ho. Chicago-Kent Law Review, Vol. 84, No. 2, 2009.
• “The Double-Edged Sword in Gay Economic Life: Marriage and the Market.” Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice, Vol. 15, No. 1, Fall 2008, pp. 109-128.
• “Registered Domestic Partnerships Among Gay Men and Lesbians: The Role of Economic Factors,” M. V. Lee Badgett, Gary J. Gates, and Natalya Maisel, Review of Economics of the Household, December 2008.
• “The Impact on Maryland’s Budget of Allowing Same-Sex Couples to Marry,” M. V. Lee Badgett, Amanda K. Baumle, Shawn
• Kravich, Adam P. Romero, R. Bradley Sears, University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2007, pp. 295-339.
• “Supporting Families, Saving Funds: An Economic Analysis of Equality for Same-sex Couples in New Jersey,” Rutgers
• Journal of Law & Public Policy, by M. V. Lee Badgett, R. Bradley Sears, and Deborah Ho, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2006.
• “Separate and Unequal: The Effect of Unequal Access to Employment-Based Health Insurance on Same-sex and Unmarried
• Different-Sex Couples,” Michael Ash and M. V. Lee Badgett, Contemporary Economic Policy, October 2006, Vol. 24, no. 4, pp 582-599.
• “Predicting Partnership Rights: Applying the European Experience to the United States,” Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, Vol. 17, No. 1, Spring 2005, 71-88.
• “Putting a Price on Equality? The Impact of Allowing Same-Sex Couples to Marry on California’s Budget,” coauthored
• with R. Bradley Sears, Stanford Law & Policy Review, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2005, pp. 197-232. Winner of 2005
• Dukeminier Award for Best Sexual Orientation Law Review Articles, reprinted in The Dukeminier Award Journal, Vol. 5, 2006.
• “Now That We Do: Same-Sex couples and Marriage in Massachusetts,” with Randy Albelda and Michael Ash, Massachusetts Benchmarks, Vol. 7, Issue 2, 2005, 17-24.
• “Asking the Right Questions: Making the Case for Sexual Orientation Data,” 2004 Proceedings of the American
• Statistical Association, Statistical Computing Section [CD-ROM], Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association.
• “Will Providing Marriage Rights to Same-Sex Couples Undermine Heterosexual Marriage?” Sexuality Research and Social Policy: Journal of NSRC, Vol. 1, No. 3, September 2004, pp. 1-10.
• "Job Gendering: Occupational Choice and the Marriage Market," M. V. Lee Badgett and Nancy Folbre, Industrial Relations, April, 42(2), 2003, 270-298.
• "Wedding Bell Blues: The Income Tax Consequences of Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage," James Alm, M. V. Lee
• Badgett, and Leslie A. Whittington, National Tax Journal, Vol. LIII, No. 2, June 2000, pp. 201-214.
• "Assigning Care," co-authored with Nancy Folbre, International Labour Review, Vol. 138, No. 3, 1999, pp. 311-326.
• "Introduction: Towards Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Perspectives in Economics: Why and How They May Make a Difference," Prue Hyman and M. V. Lee Badgett, introduction to special section of Feminist Economics, co-edited by Badgett and Hyman, Vol. 4, No. 2, Summer 1998, pp. 49-54