IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joerap/v8y2025i2d10.1007_s41996-024-00149-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sexual Orientation, Sexual Attraction, and Income

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher S. Carpenter

    (Vanderbilt University
    National Bureau of Economic Research)

  • Joshua C. Martin

    (Vanderbilt University)

  • Hasan Shahid

    (Vanderbilt University)

Abstract

We provide new evidence on sexual orientation, sexual attraction, and income using data from the 2015–2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). These data ask individuals about both orientation and attraction, allowing us to describe a sexual minority group that has been hidden in prior research: people who identify as heterosexual but who concurrently report some same-sex attraction. We show that this population is much larger than the sample of self-identified gay, lesbian, or bisexual people, and we show that relative to heterosexual people who report exclusively different-sex attraction, heterosexual people who report some same-sex attraction are younger, less likely to be married, and much more highly educated. We document that, controlling for observables, heterosexual men who report same-sex attraction experience robust and statistically significant employment and income penalties relative to heterosexual men who are exclusively different-sex attracted. These penalties are larger for non-Hispanic White men than for non-Hispanic Black men. We find no similar penalty for heterosexual women who report same-sex attraction. Our results indicate that prior research has overlooked one of the largest groups of sexual minorities—heterosexual people who report some same-sex attraction—who experience systematically different economic outcomes than heterosexual individuals who are exclusively different-sex attracted.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher S. Carpenter & Joshua C. Martin & Hasan Shahid, 2025. "Sexual Orientation, Sexual Attraction, and Income," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 138-149, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joerap:v:8:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s41996-024-00149-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s41996-024-00149-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41996-024-00149-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41996-024-00149-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael E. Martell & Leanne Roncolato, 2023. "Economic Vulnerability of Sexual Minorities: Evidence from the US Household Pulse Survey," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(2), pages 1-74, April.
    2. Michael E Martell & Mary Eschelbach Hansen, 2017. "Sexual identity and the lesbian earnings differential in the U.S," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 75(2), pages 159-180, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael E. Martell & Leanne Roncolato, 2023. "Economic Vulnerability of Sexual Minorities: Evidence from the US Household Pulse Survey," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(2), pages 1-74, April.
    2. Ian Burn & Michael E. Martell, 2022. "Gender typicality and sexual minority labour market differentials," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(4), pages 784-814, December.
    3. Olga Alonso-Villar & Coral del Río, 2024. "Poverty among same-sex couple families in the United States: Is there a premium for married couples?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 22(2), pages 495-517, June.
    4. Aksoy, Billur & Chadd, Ian, 2025. "Competitiveness at the intersection of gender and sexual orientation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    5. Cameron Deal & Shea Greenberg & Gilbert Gonzales, 2024. "Sexual identity, poverty, and utilization of government services," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(2), pages 1-31, June.
    6. Carpenter, Christopher S. & Dasgupta, Kabir & Merchant, Zofsha & Plum, Alexander, 2025. "Sexual orientation and financial well-being in the United States," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    7. Martell, Michael E., 2021. "Labor market differentials estimated with researcher-inferred and self-identified sexual orientation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    8. Qingfang Wang & Wei Kang, 2024. "Race/Ethnicity and Employment Insecurity: Impacts of COVID-19 on the US Labor Force and Beyond," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 43(4), pages 1-28, August.
    9. Mary Eschelbach Hansen & Michael E. Martell & Leanne Roncolato, 2020. "A labor of love: The impact of same-sex marriage on labor supply," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 265-283, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:joerap:v:8:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s41996-024-00149-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.