This paper presents results from a study of sexual prejudice and differentials in labor market outcomes due to sexual orientation. It uses data from a nationwide Swedish survey on public attitudes toward homosexuals, conducted in 1999, and combines them with register data for 2007, which include information about sexual orientation, employment status, and yearly earnings for the total population in Sweden. It finds that prejudice against homosexuals negatively affects the relative employment and relative earnings of gay men. Lesbians are affected negatively by prejudice against homosexuals in terms of employment, but the relationship is less clear in regard to earnings. Discrimination against homosexuals, as well as social norms, occupational sorting and self-selection in, geographic mobility are presented as explanations for the results.

This article presents the first field experiment on sexual orientation discrimination in the hiring process in the Swedish labor market. Job applications were sent to about 4000 employers in 10 different occupations in Sweden. Gender and sexual orientation were randomly assigned to applications. The results show that sexual orientation discrimination exists in the Swedish labor market. The discrimination against the gay male applicant and the lesbian applicant varied across different occupations and appears to be concentrated in the private sector. The results also show that the gay male applicant was discriminated against in typical male-dominated occupations, whereas the lesbian applicant was discriminated against in typical female-dominated occupations. Theoretical implications are discussed

An experimental study of perceptions about gay, lesbian, and heterosexual domestic violence in Sweden. Undergraduate students (N = 1009) read one of eight fictitious scenarios of domestic violence in married couple relationships, where sexual orientation, sex of victim and batterer, and severity of violence were varied. Perceptions of seriousness of the described incident and attitudes toward women, gays and lesbians were measured. Domestic violence was perceived as more serious in cases where: the respondent was a woman, the batterer was a man, the victim was a woman, or the battering was severe. Wife-battering in a heterosexual relationship was considered the most serious case in both the less and more severe battering scenario. Where battering was less severe, domestic violence in gay and lesbian relationships was perceived as more serious than heterosexual husband-battering; this difference disappeared in the severe battering scenario. Negative attitudes toward gays, lesbians, and women were associated with less concern about domestic violence in all types of relationships. The findings suggest that stereotypes about gays, lesbians, and women affect perceptions of domestic violence, but mainly when violence is less severe.

In this paper we explore annual earnings as well as full-time monthlyearnings differentials resulting from sexual orientation. We observe that gay malesare at an earnings disadvantage compared to male heterosexuals regardless of whichearnings measure we use. This earnings disadvantage is found to be larger when wecompare gay and heterosexual males who are working full-time. In addition, thedisadvantage is larger in the private than in the public sector. Lesbians, however,earn more than heterosexual females. This earnings advantage is considerablysmaller when we study full-time monthly rather than annual earnings but an earningsadvantage for lesbians at the top of the earnings distribution is documentedregardless of which earnings measure we use. In addition, lesbians are doing betterthan female heterosexuals in the public sector. To sum up, the results indicate thatgay males face obstacles on the labor market that hinder them from reaching toplevelpositions and high earnings. The earnings advantage observed for lesbians islikely to stem from the fact that lesbians devote more time to market work thanheterosexual females.

This paper presents the first field experiment on sexual orientation discrimination in the hiring process in the Swedish labor market. Job applications were sent to about 4,000 employers in 10 different occupations in Sweden. Gender and sexual orientation were randomly assigned to applications. The results show that sexual orientation discrimination exists in the Swedish labor market. The discrimination against gays and lesbian varies across different occupations and appears only in the private sector. The results also seem to suggest a new dimension of traditional gender roles; the gay applicant was discriminated against in typical male-dominated occupations whereas the lesbian applicant was discriminated against in typical female-dominated occupations. Thus, the results suggest that gays to some extent face the same obstacles on the labor market as heterosexual women.

Previous research has documented earnings differentials due to sexual orientation. In this paper we take a closer look at such differentials and the explanations for them. By studying yearly earnings as well as full-time monthly earnings, we are able to observe the extent to which the earnings disadvantage that is often observed for homosexual males and the earnings advantage often observed for homosexual females remain when we control for factors such as their number of hours worked. Our results suggest that male homosexuals are also at an earnings disadvantage compared to male heterosexuals after controlling for number of hours worked. This disadvantage is larger at the top than at the bottom of the earnings distribution. However, for females the earnings differential is considerably smaller when we study full-time monthly earnings than when we study yearly earnings. Thus, the results indicate that male homosexuals face obstacles on the labour market that hinder them from reaching top-level positions and high earnings levels; the earnings advantage often observed for homosexual females in previous research is more likely to stem from the fact that female homosexuals devote more time to market labour than heterosexual females do.

This paper presents an experimental study of perceptions about gay, lesbian, and heterosexual domestic violence in Sweden. More than 1,000 participants were asked to read one out of eight possible fictitious scenarios of domestic violence in married couple relationships and subsequently respond to a questionnaire. Sexual orientation, victims’ and batterers’ gender, and severity of the violence varied across the different scenarios. The clearest result of this study was that participants perceived domestic violence to be significantly more serious when a man battered his wife than in any other case (i.e., when a woman battered her husband, when a gay man battered his husband, or when a lesbian woman battered her wife). In all types of relationships, participants matched their perceptions of domestic violence to the level of severity of the violence and participants with more negative attitudes toward women perceived domestic violence as less serious. Female participants were more concerned about lesbian domestic violence than male participants. Attitudes toward gays and lesbians mattered little for the perceptions of domestic violence.

This paper investigates whether people are conditional reciprocators in an investment game experiment, in the sense that the more they are trusted, the more they reciprocate. The results show that the majority of participants are conditional reciprocators but that they can be classified into three types: (1) exploitative reciprocators who do not reciprocate and exploit trust; (2) egoistic reciprocators who neither exploit nor reward trust; and (3) generous reciprocators who reward trusting behavior.