The Cost of Coming Out

Enzo Brox () and Riccardo Di Francesco ()
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Enzo Brox: SEW, University of St.Gallen

No 572, CEIS Research Paper from Tor Vergata University, CEIS

Abstract: The fear of social stigma and discrimination leads many individuals worldwide to hesitate in openly disclosing their sexual orientation. Due to the large costs of concealing identity, it is crucial to understand the extent of anti-LGB sentiments and reactions to coming out. However, disclosing one’s sexual orientation is a personal choice, complicating data access and introducing endogeneity issues. This paper tackles these challenges by using an innovative data source from a popular online video game together with a natural experiment. We exploit exogenous variation in the identity of a playable character to identify the effects of disclosure on players’ revealed preferences for that character. Leveraging detailed daily data, we monitor players’ preferences for the character across diverse regions globally and employ synthetic control methods to isolate the effect of the disclosure on players’ preferences. Our findings reveal a substantial and persistent negative impact of coming out. To strengthen the plausibility of social stigma as the primary explanation for the estimated effects, we systematically address and eliminate several alternative game-related channels.

Keywords: LGB economics; social stigma; concealable stigma (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 J71 K38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2024-04-16, Revised 2024-04-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-soc and nep-ure
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Working Paper: The Cost of Coming Out (2024)
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