A new study published by researchers at UMass Amherst, Leiden University, Netherlands and Rutgers University has found that nations offering more rights to lesbian, gay and bisexual people enjoy significantly higher per capita GDP than those who trail in LGB equality, and that nations fostering exclusion of LGB people are causing harms to their economies. The study, “The Relationship between LGBT Inclusion and Economic Development: Macro-Level Evidence,” appears online in the journal World Development. “All over the world LGBT people face discrimination in the labor market, harassment and bullying in education and stresses that harm their health. This treatment diminishes their ability to contribute to the economy, and the economy suffers when countries fail to recognize their rights,” says lead author M.V. Lee Badgett, professor of economics and public policy at UMass Amherst and distinguished scholar at the UCLA Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy. (Phys.org, 4/10/19; News Office release)
Month: April 2019
Medicare-for-all is the only plan that will control health care costs and provide universal coverage, writes Gerald Friedman, economics. Friedman says that other plans, like “Medicare for America” and “Medicare Extra for All,” are not reasonable because they keep the inefficient private insurance and multipayer systems. (USA Today, 4/8/19)
People often look at the gender pay gap in simplistic terms, says Nancy Folbre, professor emerita of economics. She says they apply incomplete explanations, like placing blame all on employers for discriminating against women, or assuming that all women have different priorities than men. (CNBC, 4/2/19)
Nancy Folbre, Professor Emerita of Economics, was among eight economists interviewed by CNBC for U.S. Equal Pay Day (Women had to work through April 2, 2019, an additional three months, to equal men’s 2018 average annual earnings.) Other economists interviewed included Claudia Goldin (Harvard University), Heidi Hartmann (President of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research), and Gary Burtless (Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution).
“8 economists on what people don’t understand about the gender pay gap—and if it can actually be closed”