000319182 001__ 319182 000319182 005__ 20240716032629.0 000319182 037__ $$aBOOK 000319182 245__ $$aComing out in America$$bAIDS, politics, and cultural change 000319182 260__ $$aLondon$$bCentre for Economic Policy Research$$c2019 000319182 269__ $$a2019 000319182 300__ $$a63 pages : illustrations 000319182 336__ $$aPapers and Reports 000319182 490__ $$aCEPR Discussion Paper ; 13749 000319182 520__ $$aThe last few decades witnessed a dramatic change in public opinion towards gay people. This paper studies the hypothesis that the AIDS epidemic was a shock that changed the incentive to "come out" and that the ensuing process of mobilization and endogenous political process led to cultural transformation. We show that the process of change was discontinuous over time and present suggestive evidence that the 1992 presidential election followed by the "don't ask, don't tell" debate led to a change in attitudes. Using a difference-in-difference empirical strategy, we find that, in accordance with our hypothesis, the change in opinion was greater in states with higher AIDS rates. Our analysis suggests that if individuals in low-AIDS states had experienced the same average AIDS rate as a high-AIDS state, the change in their approval rate from the '70s to the '90s would have been 50 percent greater. 000319182 700__ $$aFernández, Raquel 000319182 700__ $$aParsa, Sahar 000319182 700__ $$aViarengo, Martina 000319182 8564_ $$926370aad-a07f-432a-8fbb-ebe092aefd14$$s2065153$$uhttps://repository.graduateinstitute.ch/record/319182/files/DP13749.pdf 000319182 901__ $$uInternational Economics Department 000319182 901__ $$uCentre for Finance and Development 000319182 909CO $$ooai:repository.graduateinstitute.ch:319182$$pGLOBAL_SET$$pIHEID:Explore 000319182 981__ $$aoverwrite