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Transgender Economics with Travis Campbell, Laura Nettuno, and Karinna Saxby (download)
Revise and Resubmit at the Journal of Economic Literature
Abstract: This article reviews the transgender economics literature and synthesizes its key findings with a simple economic model of gender. We document four empirical patterns: transgender people face pervasive discrimination; transgender people have worse health outcomes than cisgender people; gender identity conversion therapy is associated with worsened mental health; and the effects of gender transition are nonlinear, with early gender identity milestones often coinciding with increased distress and later stages improving health and well-being. To explain these patterns, we provide the first economic model of gender. We formalize gender as a constrained choice problem: individuals derive utility from expressing their gender identity but must forgo consumption to modify their gender expression, creating a tradeoff. When one’s expression deviates from the norms tied to one’s perceived gender, discrimination reduces their identity payoff. Individuals thus balance benefits of identity expression against the costs of discrimination, minority stress, gender dysphoria, and foregone consumption.
A Transgender Economists Guide to Writing About Transgender and Gender Diverse People (download)
Abstract: Interest in transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people has increased in the last decade in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and Europe because of increasing visibility and more inclusive surveys. The current literature in economics displays a degree of cisgender bias which can blind researchers and result in transphobic or poorly informed research questions and analysis. In this paper, I discuss the most common biases and misunderstandings researchers have and the resulting implications for causal identification. I also provide recommendations for how to write about TGD people in a respectful manner and provide reasoning for these conventions. Finally, I discuss some common, but potentially overlooked institutional barriers that have socioeconomic impacts on TGD people.
Decomposing the Societal Opportunity Costs of Property Crime (download)
Abstract: In this paper, I explore how property crime can affect static and dynamic general equilibrium behavior of households and firms. I calibrate a model with a representative firm and heterogeneous households where households have the choice to commit property crime. In contrast to previous literature, I treat crime as a transfer rather than home production. This creates a feedback loop wherein negative productivity shocks increase property crime which further depresses legitimate work and capital accumulation. These responses by households are particularly important when thinking about the effect of property crime on the economy. Household and firm losses account for 24% of compensating variation (CV) and 37% of lost production. This suggests that behavioral responses are quite important when calculating the cost of property crime. Finally, on the margin, decreasing property crime by 1% increases social welfare by 0.19%, but the effect is diminishing suggesting that reducing crime entirely may not be optimal from a policymakers perspective.
Estimating the Effect of Property Crime on Income: A System GMM Approach (download)
Abstract: In this paper, I estimate the causal effect of property crime on real personal income per capita. Running system GMM on an unbalanced panel of MSA-year pairs suggests that property crime reduces real personal income per capita by a highly statistically significant 13.3%. This implies that the average person loses $4,869 (2009 dollars) per year with real annual personal income per capita totaling $36,615. The effect is driven primarily by larceny-theft and burglary with highly statistically significant coefficients of -0.179 and -0.110 respectively. Estimates for the effect of robbery are unstable, and the effect of motor vehicle theft is statistically significant, but smaller with a coefficient of -0.060.
A Search Theoretic Model of Part-Time Employment and Multiple Job Holdings (download) - under deadname
Abstract: This paper develops a search-matching model of the labor market with part-time employment and multiple job holdings. The model is calibrated to data from the CPS between 2001 and 2004. Workers are able to choose their search intensity and are allowed to hold two jobs while firms can choose what type of worker to recruit. When compared to the canonical Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides model, this model performs quite well while capturing some empirical regularities. First, the model generates recruiting and vacancy posting rates that move in opposite directions. Second, part-time employment is up to 10 times more responsive than full-time employment. Third, the model suggests that multiple job holding rates are more flexible than observed in the data with the rate changing by as much as 4 percentage points compared to 0.1 percentage points in the data. Finally, the full model is able to capture compositional changes during recessions with the full-time rate declining and the part-time rate increasing. It also produces an empirically consistent increase in the unemployment rate as well as a decrease in output. The DMP model is more muted than in the data for both.
Why are transgender and gender diverse people more likely to be transgender than cisgender people?
Transphobic discrimination in search and matching models
Human capital development, gender dysphoria, transphobia, and the timing of transition
Compton, A. (2013). Welfare Reform’s Effect on State Public Welfare Budget Shares. SS-AAEA Journal of Agricultural Economics.