Institutions, Attitudes and LGBT: Evidence from the Gold Rush
Abel Brodeur and
Joanne Haddad ()
Additional contact information
Joanne Haddad: Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON
No 1808E, Working Papers from University of Ottawa, Department of Economics
Abstract:
This paper analyzes the determinants behind the spatial distribution of the LGBT population in the U.S. We relate the size of the present-day LGBT population to the discovery of gold mines during the 19th century gold rushes. Comparing the surroundings of these gold mines to other current and former mining counties, we find that there are currently 10-15% more same-sex couples in counties in which gold discoveries were made during the gold rushes. We also provide empirical evidence that residents of gold rush counties still have more favorable attitudes toward homosexuality nowadays. Our findings are consistent with two mechanisms. First, gold rushes led to a large (temporary) increase in the male-to-female ratio. Second, we show that gold rush counties were less likely to house a notable place of worship at the time of the discovery (and in the following decades) and are currently less religious, suggesting a role of institutions in shaping attitudes and norms.
Keywords: persistence; LGBT; attitudes; institutions; religion. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J10 O13 O18 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 71 pages
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)
Downloads: (external link)
https://socialsciences.uottawa.ca/economics/sites/ ... ics/files/1808ee.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 504 Gateway Time-out
Related works:
Journal Article: Institutions, attitudes and LGBT: Evidence from the gold rush (2021) 
Working Paper: Institutions, Attitudes and LGBT: Evidence from the Gold Rush (2018) 
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ott:wpaper:1808e
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in Working Papers from University of Ottawa, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Aggey Semenov ().