M. V. Lee Badgett

M. V. Lee Badgett is a Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Distinguished Scholar at the Williams Institute. She specializes in economic inequality for LGBT people, focusing on wage gaps, employment discrimination, poverty, and the economic costs of homophobia and transphobia. Lee has served as an expert witness in landmark cases like Prop 8 and testified before Congress and state legislatures.

• Education: Ph.D. in Economics from UC Berkeley, B.A. from the University of Chicago

Research Interests center on quantifying discrimination, analyzing LGBTQ+ socioeconomic disparities, and linking inclusion policies to economic development. Her work spans public policy, international human rights, and labor economics. She authored the 2020 book The Economic Case for LGBT Equality and numerous reports.

Scientific Contributions include pioneering methods for measuring LGBTQ+ poverty and inclusion, with applications in legal advocacy and policy reform. Her publications address minimum wage impacts, workplace discrimination, and global economic implications of homophobia.

Expert Testimony and public policy engagement highlight her role in shaping legal and legislative frameworks. She also co-authored best practices for collecting LGBTQ+ demographic data in surveys.