The economics of lesbian and gay families
The economics of lesbian and gay families
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DOI：
10.1257/jep.21.2.53
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发表时间：
2007-03-01
影响因子：
8.4
通讯作者：
Taylor, Lowell J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Black, Dan A.;Sanders, Seth G.;Taylor, Lowell J.
在这篇文章中，我们提供了一些关于美国男女同性恋人口的统计数据，并询问基于经济推理的分析是否可以为我们观察到的家庭结果提供见解。我们并不从偏好的先天差异假设开始，而是试图理解约束的差异如何系统地改变同性恋者、女同性恋者和异性恋者所面临的激励。我们的工作强化了加里·贝克尔的中心主题：家庭生活和经济生活是交织在一起的。家庭内部的决定--包括夫妻对彼此承诺、离婚、生育或收养孩子的决定--与其他经济决定有着内在的联系，包括人力资本积累、劳动力供给、职业选择、消费和居住地决定。我们提供的证据解决了一些问题：不同的生物约束所面临的男同性恋，女同性恋和异性恋夫妇影响选择孩子？生育率（或预期生育率）的差异是否也是由于制约因素的差异而影响到人们的居住地？同性伴侣的家庭专业化模式是否与异性伴侣有可预测的不同？
In this essay, we provide some statistics about the gay and lesbian population in the United States, and ask if analysis based on economic reasoning can provide insight into the family outcomes we observe. We do not start with a hypothesis of innate differences in preferences, but instead seek to understand how differences in constraints systematically alter incentives faced by gay, lesbian, and heterosexual people. Our work reinforces a central theme of Gary Becker's: that family life and economic life are interwoven. Decisions within families - including couples' decisions to commit to one another, divorce, bear children, or adopt children - are intrinsically connected to other economic decisions, including human capital accumulation, labor supply, occupational choice, consumption, and decisions about where to live. We provide evidence addressing number of questions: Do differing biological constraints faced by gay, lesbian, and heterosexual couples affect choices over children? Do differences in fertility (or anticipated fertility), again owing to differences in constraints, influence where people live? Do same-sex couples have patterns of household specialization that differ in predictable fashion from heterosexual couples?