Effect of Registered Partnership on Labor Earnings and Fertility for Same-Sex Couples: Evidence From Swedish Register Data

Commentary on "Same-Sex Marriage and Common Mental Health Diagnoses: A Sibling Comparison and Adoption Approach"

This is a commentary on "Same-sex Marriage and Common Mental Health Diagnoses: A Sibling Comparison and Adoption Approach" by Xu, Rahman, Hiyoshi, and Montgomery. It considers the advantages and disadvantages of the study design and the contribution the study makes to the scientific literature. Discussed are issues of phenotype accuracy especially with respect to sexual orientation and other potential confounds, and some comments on common misunderstandings of the meaning and implications of findings of genetic correlations to human behavior.

Customer and Worker Discrimination Against Gay and Lesbian Business Owners: A Web-Based Experiment among Students in Sweden

We examined customer and worker discrimination against gay and lesbian business owners using a web-based experiment conducted at a Swedish university campus. Participants (N = 1,406) were presented with a prospective restaurant establishment on the campus. They then stated whether they would be positive to such an establishment, whether they would be interested in working at the restaurant, and what their reservation wage would be if they were interested in the job. Owners' sexual orientation was randomized across participants. Results showed that participants were less positive to a restaurant opening if the owners were lesbians, and they were less interested in an available job if the owners were gay. The participants had higher reservation wages if the owners were lesbians. In fact, the participants increased their wage demands when the number of women among the owners increased. Our study underlines that gay and lesbian people face various inequalities in society.

Who Gives Birth (First) in Female Same-Sex Couples in Sweden?

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to analyze factors predicting (a) the transition to parenthood for female same-sex couples in Sweden and (b) which partner is the birth mother for the first and (any) second child.

BACKGROUND

Longitudinal studies in which couples become parents are rare for same-sex couples in any context, even though these families are increasing. Childbearing in lesbian couples is an interesting case for testing theories linked to family utility maximization and household bargaining, as these couples can often choose who will carry a child.

METHOD

Discrete-time event history and linear probability models are estimated on Swedish population register data (1995-2016) to analyze couples' transitions to first and second birth and the choice of birth mother.

RESULTS

The higher the household income and partners' educational levels, the more likely couples are to become parents. However, within-couple income gaps are small, and income and education are unrelated to the choice of first-birth mother. Couples are more likely to have a second child and to switch birth mothers if both are highly educated or the first social mother is highly educated.

CONCLUSION

Factors predicting which couples become parents are similar in same-sex and different-sex couples. In same-sex couples, short-term within-couple specialization is of little relevance for who becomes the birth mother. Analyses of the transition to a second birth suggest that long-term planning matters for who becomes the first- and second-birth mother.

Two Decades of Same-Sex Marriage in Sweden: A Demographic Account of Developments in Marriage, Childbearing, and Divorce

In this study, we provide demographic insight into the still relatively new family form of same-sex marriage. We focus on period trends in same-sex marriage formation and divorce during 1995–2012 in Sweden and the role of childbearing in same-sex unions. The period begins with the introduction of registered partnership for same-sex couples and also covers the introduction of formal same-sex marriage in 2009. We use register data for the complete population of Sweden to contrast patterns in male and female same-sex marriage formation and divorce. We show that female same-sex union formation increased rapidly over the period, while trends for male same-sex unions increased less. The introduction of same-sex marriage legislation in 2009 appears to have had little effect on the pace of formation of same-sex unions. In contrast, legal changes supporting parental rights in same-sex unions may have fueled the formation of female same-sex marriages as well as parenthood in such unions. Further, we show that divorce risks in the marital unions of two women are much higher than in other types of marriages. We find some convergence of divorce risks across union types at the end of our study period: male same-sex unions have the same divorce risk levels as opposite-sex marriages, and the elevated risks of divorce in female same-sex unions appear to have stabilized at somewhat lower levels than those observed in the late 1990s.

The Direct Effects of Legal Same-Sex Marriage in the United States: Evidence From Massachusetts

I provide evidence on the direct effects of legal same-sex marriage in the United States by studying Massachusetts, the first state to legalize it in 2004 by court order. Using confidential Massachusetts data from 2001–2013, I show that the ruling significantly increased marriage among lesbians, bisexual women, and gay men compared with the associated change for heterosexuals. I find no significant effects on coupling. Marriage take-up effects are larger for lesbians than for bisexual women or gay men and are larger for households with children than for households without children. Consistent with prior work in the United States and Europe, I find no reductions in heterosexual marriage.

Sexual identity, same-same relationships, and health dynamics: New evidence from Australia

Prior research has found that opposite-sex marital and cohabiting relationships are associated with improvements in health. However, studies examining the health dynamics of same-sex relationships are sparser because few nationally representative longitudinal datasets collect information on adults' sexual identity. Using newly available data on sexual minorities from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, we estimate the effects of Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual (LGB) identification and same-sex relationships on health dynamics. We document two key findings. First, sexual minorities in Australia are more likely to engage in risky health behaviors and report worse health than their heterosexual counterparts. Second, after exploiting the longitudinal nature of the HILDA and accounting for selection into relationships using the dynamic panel approach of Kohn and Averett (2014), we find that while opposite-sex partnerships are associated with a 3 to 7 percentage-point decline in risky health behaviors and improved physical and mental health, the health benefits of same-sex relationships are weaker, particularly for men.