Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

A growing literature examines differences in economic outcomes associated with a minority sexual orientation using population representative datasets, but very little work has examined the role of transgender status in economic outcomes, mainly due to lack of credible data.  We provide the first large-scale evidence on transgender status and economic outcomes using newly available data from 19 states in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) that asked a direct question about transgender status; nearly 700 adults self-identified as transgender.  Controlling for demographic characteristics, we find that identifying as transgender is associated with significantly worse economic outcomes as measured by employment, disability, homeownership, household income, and poverty status.  In future work we will estimate whether these associations are significantly different in states with transgender-inclusive employment protections.