About M. V. Lee Badgett

M.V. Lee Badgett is Professor of economics and director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is also Williams Distinguished Scholar at the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy at UCLA. Her book, When Gay People Get Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage (NYU Press, 2009), focuses on the US and European experiences with marriage equality for same-sex couples. Her first book, Money, Myths, and Change: The Economic Lives of Lesbians and Gay Men (University of Chicago Press, 2001) debunked the myth of gay affluence and presented evidence of labor market discrimination against LGB people. She is currently studying the experiences of LGBT actors, the impact of state nondiscrimination laws on firm outcomes, and poverty in the LGBT community. She is also completing a book, Using Research to Change the World. Badgett has testified on her work before Congress and many state legislatures, and she was an expert witness in California’s Prop 8 trial. Badgett received a PhD in economics from the University of California-Berkeley in 1990, and has a BA in economics from the University of Chicago.