Chapter 75: Queer Economics: Sexual Orientation and Economic Outcomes

Richard R. Cornwall

Queer economics: Sexual orientation and economic outcomes Queer economics looks at a particular example of the tight connection between markets and the emergence and shaping of social identities. What makes it “queer” is focusing on the role markets have played in the birth of lesbian-gay-bi-transexual identities with particular interest in how certain identities are queered (i.e., their social valuation is switched across a social boundary between straight-respectable and gayabjected). Queer economics also goes the other direction—namely, from perceptions of sexual orientations in markets to the behavior of individuals and businesses in markets resulting, for example, in inequality in earnings according to sexual orientation. An economist ignorant of queer theory might imagine measuring the economic impact of queer culture on the circular flow of national output/consumption by measuring how many units of currency per year of queer culture are bought and sold. But then, does one count only sales of new ...

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