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Badgett: Same-sex couples prefer marriage

M.V. Lee Badgett

M.V. Lee Badgett, UMass Amherst economics professor and director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration, comments in a story about how studies show that same-sex couples prefer marriage to civil unions and choose marriage at about the same rate as traditional different-sex couples. The report also finds that couples will travel to a state that has marriage rights if they reside in a state that does not. (Bay Windows, 11/9/11)

“We see a lot of evidence that same-sex couples strongly prefer marriage over civil unions or domestic partnerships. Same-sex couples marry at higher rates in the first year they have the option than we see in civil union states, for example,” M.V. Lee Badgett, Research Director of The Williams Institute and professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “Our findings are consistent with other research showing that couples value marriage more for its social meaning than for its practical benefits.”

 

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Basu Faculty Folbre Friedman Graduate Kotz Resnick UMass Economics

Faculty and grad students on “Occupy” protests

Anastasia Wilson (Photo by Diane Lederman, The Republican)

Many UMass Amherst Economics Department faculty and graduate students have participated in the “Occupy” protests that started on Wall Street and have spread internationally. Occupy protests have been held locally in Amherst, Boston and Northampton.

On Oct. 19 UMass Amherst economics professors Gerald Friedman, David Kotz, and Stephen Resnick joined colleagues Dean Robinson and Jillian Schwedler (political science), Max Page (art), and Millicent Thayer (sociology) for the first Occupy UMass Teach-In held in the Cape Cod Lounge on the UMass Amherst campus. (The Daily Collegian, 10/20/11)

Deepankar Basu (Photo by Diane Lederman, The Republican)

Nancy Folbre, UMass Amherst economics professor, writes in the Economix blog about the Occupy Wall Street movement and what it may mean for the debate about wealth distribution in the U.S. She says visiting the protestors in New York City showed her that they weren’t proposing class warfare, but were instead expressing class rage. (New York Times, 10/17/11

Graduate student Mark Paul is profiled in a story about local residents who are taking part in the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York City. (Gazette, 10/11/11)

A group of UMass Amherst students held a rally outside the Student Union on Oct. 12 calling for economic justice as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Speakers at the rally included UMass Amherst economics professors Deepankar Basu and David Kotz. (Republican, 10/13/11)

UMass Amherst graduate students, including Anastasia Wilson (shown in photo), participate in the Occupy Amherst protest on the Town Common. A video of the event highlights their message. (Republican, 10/5/11)