Mary Virginia Lee Badgett (born 1960) is an American economist at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

, best known for her research into economic issues relevant to lesbians, gay men, and their families. Badgett earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in economics from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1982 and a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

degree in economics from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, in 1990. From 1990 to 1997 she was on the faculty at the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Mary ...

, and in 1997 she joined the

University of Massachusetts, Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, i ...

. Since 2005 Badgett has also been the research director at the

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

Williams Institute The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy, usually shortened to Williams Institute, is a public policy research institute based at the UCLA School of Law focused on sexual orientation and gender ident ...

. Badgett's research has debunked the myth that gay and lesbian Americans are more affluent than straight people. She has also documented the effects on taxation of government recognition of

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

, showing in 2007 that

same-sex couples A same-sex relationship is a Romance (love), romantic or Human sexuality, sexual relationship between people of the same sex. ''Same-sex marriage'' refers to the institutionalized recognition of such relationships in the form of a marriage; civil ...

pay on average more than $1,000 annually than similarly situated opposite-sex couples whose marriage is recognized.Carlos Santoscoy
"Time Warner To Pay Gay Couple's Tax On Benefits"
''On Top Magazine'', Aug. 24, 2012. This research has been cited by numerous companies and institutions who have altered their employee

compensation and benefits Compensation and benefits (C&B) is a sub-discipline of human resources, focused on employee compensation and benefits policy-making. While compensation and benefits are tangible, there are intangible rewards such as recognition, work-life and de ...

to try to remedy the disparity. Badgett has testified as an expert witness before Congress and other legislatures, and in various litigations regarding same-sex marriage, including the

Proposition 8 Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a constitutional amendment, state constitutional amendment intended to ban same-sex marriage; it passed in the California state elections, November 2008, Novem ...

trial.Howard Mintz
"Prop. 8 Trial Day 6: Live Coverage from the Courtroom"
''

San Jose Mercury ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiar ...

'', Jan. 19, 2010.

Bibliography

* ''When Gay People Get Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage'' (NYU Press, 2009) * Co-Editor, ''Sexual Orientation Discrimination: An International Perspective'' (Routledge, 2007) * ''Money, Myths, and Change: The Economic Lives of Lesbians and Gay Men'' (University of Chicago Press, 2001)

References

External links

*
"Lee Badgett"
Faculty Profile, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
"Lee Badgett"
Faculty Profile, Center for Research on Families, University of Massachusetts Amherst
"Selected Works"
University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks (institutional repository) {{DEFAULTSORT:Badgett, Lee 1960 births Living people 21st-century American economists University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty University of Chicago alumni UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni LGBT and the economy American lesbian writers Lesbian scientists American LGBT rights activists American LGBT scientists American women non-fiction writers American women academics Labor economists 21st-century American women writers