Female politicians and economic growth: evidence from state elections in India
Investigating whether women’s participation in politics stimulates economic growth in India.
About this project
Description
There is growing evidence that women politicians are relatively effective in protecting
the interests of women and children. But is this at the cost of economic
growth? The researchers investigate this using close elections between men and women in a
regression discontinuity design. Using night luminosity as a measure of economic
activity, they find significantly higher economic growth rates in constituencies from
which women rather than men are elected to state legislative assemblies in India.
Amongst mechanisms, they find evidence consistent with women being less corrupt,
more effective at attracting state-level resources and more likely to improve access
to roads.
Read the IZA Discussion Paper “Women Legislators and Economic Performance”
(Thushyanthan Baskaran, Sonia R. Bhalotra, Brian Min, Yogesh Uppal)
Media coverage & outputs
- “Women MLAs more efficient, less corrupt, says study, (Himanshi Dhawan, Times of India, 12 June 2018)
- “Female politicians are better for the Indian economy, (Maria Thomas, Quartz India, 6 June 2018)
- “Women legislators and economic performance”, presentation at the annual meeting of the European Public Choice Society (EPCS), Rome, 12 April 2018
- “Are female politicians better at managing economic policies?”, (ISER blog, 26 September 2016)