Stone Inequality & Social Policy Seminar: Kitt Carpenter

"When Patient Identity Overrides Medical Indication: Public Opinion on Puberty Blockers in the United States and United Kingdom" (joint work with Billur Aksoy at RPI, Danya Lagos at Berkeley, and Dario Sansone at Exeter)

Kitt Carpenter, E. Bronson Ingram Professor of Economics, Vanderbilt University

Abstract: Recent policy decisions in the United States and the United Kingdom distinguish between puberty blockers used to treat gender dysphoria and the same medications used to treat other conditions, such as precocious puberty. This study employs a series of double list experiments to measure public support for prescribing puberty blockers to transgender and cisgender youth in the United States and the United Kingdom, and examines whether public support depends on medical condition or patient identity. We find that support declines substantially when children with precocious puberty are described as transgender, despite the condition remaining identical. Respondents also express similar levels of support for transgender children receiving puberty blockers for either precocious puberty or gender dysphoria. Public opinion thus reflects judgments about identities more than medical diagnoses. We also examine population beliefs, other attitudes and perceptions regarding a variety of other LGBTQ+ related topics. 

Christopher (‘Kitt’) Carpenter is the E. Bronson Ingram Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University, Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and Research Fellow at IZA Institute of Labor Economics. He is also University Distinguished Professor at Vanderbilt with tenure in both the Department of Economics in the College of Arts and Science and the Department of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. At Vanderbilt, Carpenter holds courtesy appointments in Law; Education; the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society; and the Department of Gender & Sexuality Studies. Carpenter is founding Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Research on Inequality and Health. Carpenter is also Founding Director and Associate Director of the Vanderbilt LGBTQ+ Policy Lab, Co-founder and Co-Chair of the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of LGBTQ+ Individuals in the Economics Profession, Past-President of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, Co-Director of the Economics of Health Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and an Elected Member of the National Academy of Medicine. He was an Editor at the Journal of Health Economics from 2018-2024 and is an Associate Editor at the American Journal of Health Economics and a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management and the Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. He studies the causes and consequences of risky and preventive health behaviors, especially the role of public health policies, as well as LGBTQ+ issues in economics and demography. His research has appeared/will appear in: American Economic Review: Insights; Journal of Economic Literature; Journal of Economic Perspectives; American Economic Journal: Applied Economics; American Economic Journal: Economic Policy; Review of Economics and Statistics; Demography; Journal of Policy Analysis and Management; PLOS One; and others. His research has been continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIA, NIAAA, NICHD, NIMH, NIMHD), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the American Cancer Society. Carpenter earned a BA in math, economics, and public service from Albion College in Michigan in 1997 and a PhD in economics from UC Berkeley in 2002. He held positions at the University of Michigan (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Postdoctoral Scholar in Health Policy) and the University of California at Irvine (Assistant and Associate Professor) prior to joining Vanderbilt in 2013.