The recent wave of same-sex marriage legalization marks the most significant human rights progress in decades. Nevertheless, the valuation effects on corporate America are unclear. While the arguments supporting marriage equality are largely in the domain of law and sociology, many prominent business leaders are actively engaged in campaigns advocating marriage equality. This suggests that the LGBT civil rights movement of our generation might have valuation implications for corporate America beyond human rights equality. This paper investigates the market perception of state-level same-sex marriage legalization by examining the short-window market reactions to firms headquartered in a state. We find positive market reactions to firms headquartered in states that legally recognize marriage equality. Further, we find that the market views companies more favorably in: (1) first-mover states before the Supreme Court ruling of United States v. Windsor, and (2) states that have stronger anti-discrimination laws for the LGBT community. Our findings complement prior research that focuses on the economic consequences of firm-level LGBT human rights policies by examining the state/nation-level legal impact, adding a new dimension to ethical practices that can have economic consequences.

最近的同性婚姻合法化浪潮标志着几十年来最重要的人权进步。然而，对美国公司的估值影响尚不清楚。虽然支持婚姻平等的论点主要在法律和社会学领域，但许多杰出的商业领袖都积极参与倡导婚姻平等的运动。这表明，我们这一代的LGBT民权运动可能会超越人权平等而对美国公司产生估值影响。本文通过考察对总部设在州内的公司的短期市场反应，调查了对州级同性婚姻合法化的市场看法。对于总部设在合法承认婚姻平等的州的公司，我们发现了积极的市场反应。更多，United States v。Windsor和（2）的州对LGBT社区具有更强的反歧视法律。我们的发现对以前的研究进行了补充，该研究通过检查州/国家/地区的法律影响，着重于企业级LGBT人权政策的经济后果，为可能产生经济后果的道德规范增加了新的维度。