Abstract
Following the recent acknowledgment of and debates around transgender people in the United States, there has emerged a small but growing literature on the economic implications of being transgender. However, most economic research on gender fails to account for major components of gender by only including sex and gender identity, which may entail drastic mischaracterizations of transgender labor market outcomes. This article accounts for how people express their gender and how one’s voice is perceived by others using the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance Systems 2014–7, which finds compelling evidence of transgender women facing labor market penalties for having a feminine gender expression and voice perceived as feminine, whereas transgender men are rewarded for having a masculine gender expression and voice perceived as masculine. HIGHLIGHTS Masculinity associates with a labor market premium. Feminine trans men and women have labor market outcomes similar to feminine ciswomen. Masculine trans men and women have labor market outcomes similar to masculine cismen. Gender incongruence associates with labor market penalties.
Published Version
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