Abstract
This paper investigates the relationship between the social inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, and technological innovation. It empirically establishes that LGBT inclusion helps foster human capital skills, thus strengthening national innovative capacity. Exploiting cross-country data, this research provides suggestive evidence that social tolerance towards homosexuality is positively correlated with the economic complexity index, a novel measure of cross-country differences in innovative capabilities. Individual-level analyses, based on data from the World Values Survey, reveal that surveyed respondents who self-report tolerance towards homosexual acts tend to have positive attitudes towards technological innovation, ceteris paribus. This lends credence to the international evidence. Further analyses indicate that the link between LGBT inclusion and innovation is partially mediated through the accumulation of human capital. The main findings suggest that the social exclusion of LGBT people, at least to some extent, impedes long-run economic development by hindering innovative activities.
Highlights
The existence of large and persistent disparities in economic prosperity across the world remains one of the most perplexing issues facing economists
The main objective of this paper is to explore the link between the social inclusion of LGBT people and cross-country differences in innovation
Given that economic complexity index (ECI) directly matters for economic prosperity, this paper investigates the contribution of LGBT inclusion to national innovative capacity captured by ECI
Summary
The existence of large and persistent disparities in economic prosperity across the world remains one of the most perplexing issues facing economists. Badgett et al (2019) postulate that the social inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people positively affects income levels Their empirical analysis is based on regressing GDP per head on an internationally comparable index of LGBT inclusion, which reflects legal rights and protections afforded to homosexual individuals across countries. As proposed by this research, is a key channel through which homosexuality-supportive policies transmit to economic growth, a better understanding of this link helps formulate relevant policies To speak to those debates, the current study attempts to examine the impacts of the social inclusion of LGBT people on national innovative capacity, based on cross-country and individual-level analyses
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