Legalized Same-Sex Marriage and Coming Out in America: Evidence from Catholic Seminaries

Avner Seror and Rohit Ticku ()
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Rohit Ticku: Institute for the Study of Religion, Economics and Society, Chapman University., https://sites.google.com/site/tickuiheid/

No 2124, AMSE Working Papers from Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France

Abstract: We study the effect of legalization of same-sex marriage on coming out in the United States. We overcome data limitations by inferring coming out decisions through a revealed preference mechanism. We exploit data on enrollment in seminary studies for the Catholic priesthood, hypothesizing that Catholic priests' vow of celibacy may lead gay men to self-select as a way to avoid a heterosexual lifestyle. Using a differencesin-differences design that exploits variation in the timing of legalization across states, we find that city-level enrollment in priestly studies fell by about 15% exclusively in states adopting the reform. The celibacy norm appears to be driving our results, since we find no effect on enrollment in deacon or lay ministry studies that do not require celibacy. We also find that coming out decisions, as inferred through enrollment in priestly studies, are primarily affected by the presence of gay communities and by prevailing social attitudes toward gays. We explain our findings with a stylized model of lifestyle choice.

Keywords: homosexuality; religion; identity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 J15 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 59 pages
Date: 2021-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Legalized Same-Sex Marriage and Coming Out in America: Evidence from Catholic Seminaries (2021)
Working Paper: Legalized Same-Sex Marriage and Coming Out in America: Evidence from Catholic Seminaries (2021)
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