In this episode, Dr. Medo Pournader interviews Dr. Jan Kabatek, Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute. Jan shares his journey from his sabbatical travels to his research at the intersection of economics, sociology, and demography, focusing on the educational outcomes of children raised in same-sex parented families.

Prompted by the 2017 same-sex marriage postal survey in Australia, Jan embarked on a research project using population-level data from the Netherlands. His findings revealed that children in same-sex parented families performed better in terms of educational outcomes compared to their peers in different-sex parented families. Jan explains the challenges of conducting such research in the context of economic journals' stringent standards for causality and how interdisciplinary collaboration helped bring this important work to fruition.

Jan also discusses the implications of these findings for public policy and societal perceptions, the potential for similar research in Australia, and his hopes for the future of sexual minorities in the broader social landscape.

The +1 Podcast is produced by the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Business and Economics and Melbourne Business School Joint Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee. The Committee can be contacted via [email protected]

Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers’ own and may not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the University of Melbourne or the Melbourne Business School. The material and information presented here is intended for general information purposes only.

Dr. Jan Kabatek, Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, discusses his research on the educational outcomes of children in same-sex parented families and the importance of robust data in shaping public policy.