IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dem/demres/v52y2025i2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Studying individuals in same-sex couples using longitudinal administrative data from Canadian tax records: Opportunities and challenges

Author

Listed:
  • Chih-lan Winnie Yang

    (University of Alberta)

  • Xavier St-Denis

    (Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS))

  • Sean Waite

    (University of Western Ontario)

  • Nicole Denier

    (University of Alberta)

Abstract

Background: Quantitative research on the social, demographic, and economic outcomes of sexual minorities has long been hampered by data shortfalls, with most surveys and censuses limited by sample sizes and/or a lack of direct questions on sexual identity. The growing availability of administrative data presents an opportunity to fill some of these gaps. Objective: This article highlights the challenges and opportunities involved with using a novel administrative dataset – the Longitudinal Administrative Databank, which includes 20% of Canadian tax filers – to study sexual minority populations in Canada. We identify three sources of bias, propose strategies to adjust for this bias, and introduce a measure of “inferred sexual minority status” to improve the identification of sexual minorities in tax data. Results: Administrative tax data offers significant advantages, including a large sample size, high-quality income data for individuals and linked family members, a longitudinal design, and the ability to trace individuals’ same-/different-sex partnership histories. Our adjustment strategies mitigate some biases in identifying same-sex couples, including underreporting, misclassification, and measurement errors. The estimated proportion of individuals in same-sex marriages closely aligns with Canadian census estimates from 2006–2021, while the proportion in same-sex common-law partnerships is underestimated. Finally, our earnings gaps analyses highlight the utility of the inferred sexual minority status measure. Contribution: This article contributes to research on sexual minority data landscapes, offering new insights into the identification and measures of sexual minority populations using longitudinal administrative tax data. Our approach points to new opportunities for studying the long-term longitudinal income and family dynamics of sexual minority populations on the national level.

Suggested Citation

  • Chih-lan Winnie Yang & Xavier St-Denis & Sean Waite & Nicole Denier, 2025. "Studying individuals in same-sex couples using longitudinal administrative data from Canadian tax records: Opportunities and challenges," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 52(2), pages 25-70.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:52:y:2025:i:2
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2025.52.2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol52/2/52-2.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/DemRes.2025.52.2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher S. Carpenter & Samuel T. Eppink, 2017. "Does It Get Better? Recent Estimates of Sexual Orientation and Earnings in the United States," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(2), pages 426-441, October.
    2. Cevat G. Aksoy & Christopher S. Carpenter & Jeff Frank, 2018. "Sexual Orientation and Earnings: New Evidence from the United Kingdom," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 71(1), pages 242-272, January.
    3. Gunnar Andersson & Turid Noack & Ane Seierstad & Harald Weedon-Fekjær, 2006. "The demographics of same-sex marriages in Norway and Sweden," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 43(1), pages 79-98, February.
    4. Céline Le Bourdais & Sung-Hee Jeon & Évelyne Lapierre-Adamcyk & Shelley Clark, 2016. "Impact of conjugal separation on women’s income in Canada: Does the type of union matter?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 35(50), pages 1489-1522.
    5. Kara Joyner & Wendy Manning & Ryan Bogle, 2017. "Gender and the Stability of Same-Sex and Different-Sex Relationships Among Young Adults," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(6), pages 2351-2374, December.
    6. Lina Aldén & Lena Edlund & Mats Hammarstedt & Michael Mueller-Smith, 2015. "Effect of Registered Partnership on Labor Earnings and Fertility for Same-Sex Couples: Evidence From Swedish Register Data," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(4), pages 1243-1268, August.
    7. Martin Kolk & Gunnar Andersson, 2020. "Two Decades of Same-Sex Marriage in Sweden: A Demographic Account of Developments in Marriage, Childbearing, and Divorce," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(1), pages 147-169, February.
    8. Maude Pugliese & David Pelletier & Céline Bourdais, 2023. "Separation and Savings in Tax-Favored Retirement Accounts Among Canadian Men and Women," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(4), pages 1-33, August.
    9. Robin Fisher & Geof Gee & Adam Looney, 2018. "Same-Sex Married Tax Filers After Windsor and Obergefell," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(4), pages 1423-1446, August.
    10. Rachel Margolis & Youjin Choi & Feng Hou & Michael Haan, 2019. "Capturing trends in Canadian divorce in an era without vital statistics," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 41(52), pages 1453-1478.
    11. Eva Jaspers & Deni Mazrekaj & Weverthon Machado, 2024. "Doing Genders: Partner’s Gender and Labor Market Behavior," American Sociological Review, , vol. 89(3), pages 518-541, June.
    12. Turid Noack & Ane Seierstad & Harald Weedon-fekjær, 2005. "A Demographic Analysis of Registered Partnerships (legal same-sex unions): The Case of Norway," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 21(1), pages 89-109, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael E. Martell & Peyton Nash, 2020. "For Love and Money? Earnings and Marriage Among Same-Sex Couples," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 260-294, September.
    2. Hanna Vseviov & Allan Puur & Mark Gortfelder, 2023. "Fertility Intentions and Sexual Orientation: Evidence from the 2020 Youth Survey in Estonia," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(2), pages 1-26, April.
    3. Zhiyong Lin & Wei-hsin Yu & Kuo-Hsien Su, 2019. "Comparing same- and different-sex relationship dynamics: Experiences of young adults in Taiwan," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(17), pages 431-462.
    4. Martin Kolk & Gunnar Andersson, 2020. "Two Decades of Same-Sex Marriage in Sweden: A Demographic Account of Developments in Marriage, Childbearing, and Divorce," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(1), pages 147-169, February.
    5. Christopher S. Carpenter, 2020. "The Direct Effects of Legal Same-Sex Marriage in the United States: Evidence From Massachusetts," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(5), pages 1787-1808, October.
    6. Chen, Shuai, 2019. "Marriage, minorities, and mass movements," Other publications TiSEM 9cb1b11d-12e6-46a8-adca-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Sansone, Dario, 2019. "Pink work: Same-sex marriage, employment and discrimination," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    8. Aksoy, Billur & Chadd, Ian & Koh, Boon Han, 2023. "Sexual identity, gender, and anticipated discrimination in prosocial behavior," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    9. Drydakis, Nick & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2020. "Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Labour Market Outcomes: New Patterns and Insights," GLO Discussion Paper Series 627, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    10. Aksoy, Cevat Giray & Carpenter, Christopher S. & Frank, Jeff & Huffman, Matt L., 2019. "Gay glass ceilings: Sexual orientation and workplace authority in the UK," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 167-180.
    11. Karsten Hank & Martin Wetzel, 2018. "Same-sex relationship experiences and expectations regarding partnership and parenthood," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 39(25), pages 701-718.
    12. Anders Björklund & Lina Aldén & Mats Hammarstedt, 2017. "Early Health and School Outcomes for Children with Lesbian Parents: Evidence from Sweden," Working Papers 2017-033, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    13. Jepsen, Christopher & Jepsen, Lisa, 2022. "Convergence over time or not? U.S. wages by sexual orientation, 2000–2019," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    14. John Levendis & Aaron Lowen, 2023. "What Same-Sex Adoption Laws Can Tell Us About the Gender Wage Gap in the United States," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 473-489, June.
    15. Moberg, Ylva, 2016. "Does the gender composition in Couples matter for the division of labor after childbirth?," Working Paper Series 2016:8, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    16. Jepsen, Christopher & Jepsen, Lisa, 2020. "Convergence Over Time or Not? U.S. Wages by Sexual Orientation, 2001-2018," IZA Discussion Papers 13495, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Billur Aksoy & Ian Chadd & Boon Han Koh, 2022. "(Anticipated) Discrimination against Sexual Minorities in Prosocial Domains," University of East Anglia School of Economics Working Paper Series 2021-08, School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    18. Maryam Dilmaghani, 2019. "Sexual orientation and the ‘cohabitation gap’ in life satisfaction in Canada," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1163-1189, December.
    19. Drydakis, Nick, 2021. "The Economics of Being LGBT. A Review: 2015-2020," GLO Discussion Paper Series 980, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    20. Neil G. Bennett, 2017. "A reflection on the changing dynamics of union formation and dissolution," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 36(12), pages 371-390.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    administrative data; tax data; same-sex couples; sexual orientation; sexual orientation earnings gap; Longitudinal Administrative Databank; Canada;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:52:y:2025:i:2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Editorial Office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.