Badgett

M.V. Lee Badgett

Professor Emeritx of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Chapter Member: Boston SSN
Areas of Expertise:

About M.V.

Badgett is a labor economist and policy analyst focusing on issues related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. She was the first economist to debunk the myth that gay people are an affluent elite. Her current research focuses on poverty in the LGBT community, employment discrimination against LGBT people, and the cost of homophobia and transphobia in global economies. She was an expert witness in many marriage equality cases, including the Prop 8 case in California, and she has testified before Congress and several state legislatures. Badgett directed the School of Public Policy at UMass Amherst and was the first research director at UCLA’s Williams Institute, where she is a senior scholar. She has served as a consultant to the World Bank and UNDP, and she has spoken before many international audiences on the economic cost of LGBT exclusion and on marriage equality.

Contributions

No Jargon Podcast

In the News

Research discussed by Vidhi Doshi, in "Gay Activists in India Push Top Court to End Ban on Homosexuality — in Part for the Economy’s Sake," The Washington Post, July 25, 2018.
Opinion: "Same-Sex Marriage Will Fuel Economy," M.V. Lee Badgett, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 22, 2015.
Opinion: "The New Case for LGBT Rights: Economics," M.V. Lee Badgett, Time, November 25, 2014.
Research discussed by Jeanna Smialek, in "Gay Myths Derailed by Economist Badgett’s Data Research," Bloomberg, June 20, 2014.
Opinion: "What Obama Should Do about Workplace Discrimination," M.V. Lee Badgett, New York Times, February 26, 2012.