Professor Ian Burn, University of Liverpool

"The Effect of Gender-Affirming Care on Mental Health and Labor Market Outcomes"
Thursday, 30 May 2024. 15:00-16:30
Room 142, Adam Smith Business School & PGT Hub

Abstract

We investigate the effect of gender-affirming care on the mental health and labor market outcomes of transgender people in Sweden. Using administrative data on the full Swedish population from 2006 to 2020, we examine how these outcomes evolve for people diagnosed with gender incongruence compared to people without such a diagnosis. Our analysis follows Callaway and Sant’Anna (2021)’s proposed method for estimating group-time average treatment effects. Aggregated results for trans men and trans women mask important heterogeneity in the impacts of gender-affirming care. In the five years after initial diagnosis, trans men exhibit a gradual decrease in the likelihood of filling a prescription for mood and anxiety medication. Their apparent improvement in mental well-being coincides with a gradual increase in employment and rapid growth in labor earnings. By contrast, trans women become more reliant on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications, experience little change in employment status, and do not have significant earnings gains until five years after diagnosis. When we decompose gender-affirming care into key milestones, we find large differences in the effects of diagnosis, hormone replacement therapy, gender-affirming surgery, and legal gender recognition. These results reveal important dynamics in the effects of gender-affirming care, thus highlighting the limitations of traditional TWFE methods in accurately assessing its impact.

Bio

Professor Ian Burn is an expert in the economics of discrimination, focusing on how discrimination in hiring and the workplace generates economic inequality. His work has been published in leading economic journals such as the American Economic Review and the Journal of Political Economy. Professor Burn is also an associate editor at Industrial Relations, a 4* ABS journal.

For further information, please contact business-school-research@glasgow.ac.uk

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First published: 13 May 2024

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