Date of Award

Spring 5-3-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Kenneth J. McLaughlin

Second Advisor

Karna Basu

Academic Program Adviser

Karna Basu

Abstract

On General Social Survey data from 2008–2018, I estimate the impact of sexual orientation on wages by addressing mismeasurement in sexual orientation that causes the estimates to attenuate towards zero. I use interval regression to estimate wages on reported sexual orientation. I then identify consistent reports of sexual orientation and sexual behavior to estimate wage gaps between individuals whose reported sexual orientation is consistent with their behavior. Removing inconsistent reports reduces the amount of attenuation that biases the estimates. Interacting sexual orientation and sexual behavior improves the wage gap estimates slightly and increases the value in absolute terms, suggesting that sexual orientation is mismeasured. My findings, however, are not statistically significant across all specifications

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