Women's Suffrage and the Growth of the Welfare State

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Women's Suffrage and the Growth of the Welfare State

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Abrams, Burton A
Settle, Russell F

Abstract

In this paper we test the hypothesis that extensions of the voting franchise to include lower income people lead to growth in government, especially growth in redistribution expenditures. The empirical analysis takes advantage of the natural experiment provided by Switzerland's extension of the franchise to women in 1971. Women's suffrage represents an institutional change with potentially significant implications for the positioning of the decisive voter. For various reasons, the decisive voter is more likely to favor increases in governmental social welfare spending following the enfranchisement of women. Evidence indicates that this extension of voting rights increased Swiss social welfare spending by 28 percent and increased the overall size of the Swiss government. Copyright 1999 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Article provided by Springer in its journal Public Choice.

Volume (Year): 100 (1999)
Issue (Month): 3-4 (September)
Pages: 289-300
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Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:100:y:1999:i:3-4:p:289-300

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Graziella Bertocchi, 2007. "The Enfranchisement of Women and the Welfare State," IZA Discussion Papers 2922, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Graziella Bertocchi, 2007. "The Enfranchisement of Women and the Welfare State," CHILD Working Papers wp15_07, CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY. [Downloadable!]
- Bertocchi, Graziella, 2007. "The Enfranchisement of Women and the Welfare State," CEPR Discussion Papers 6396, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
- Graziella Bertocchi, 2008. "The Enfranchisement of Women and the Welfare State," Discussion Papers 4_2008, D.E.S. (Department of Economic Studies), University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy. [Downloadable!]
- Graziella Bertocchi, 2008. "The Enfranchisement of Women and the Welfare State," Center for Economic Research (RECent) 018, University of Modena and Reggio E., Dept. of Economics. [Downloadable!]
Boris Gramc, 2007. "Factors Of The Size Of Government In Developed Countries," Prague Economic Papers, University of Economics, Prague, vol. 2007(2), pages 130-142. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Gradstein, Mark & Milanovic, Branko, 2000. "Does Liberte = Egalite? A Survey of the Empirical Evidence on the Links between Political Democracy and Income Inequality," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
Signe Krogstrup & Sébastien Wälti, 2007. "Women and Budget Deficits," HEI Working Papers 13-2007, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies, revised Apr 2007. [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Sébastien Wälti & Signe Krogstrup, 2006. "Women and budget deficits," Trinity Economics Papers tep0307, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2007. [Downloadable!]
Aidt, T.S. & Eterovic, D.S., 2007. "Give and Take: Political Competition, Participation and Public Finance in 20th Century Latin America," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0714, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge. [Downloadable!]
Alois Stutzer & Lukas Kienast, . "Demokratische Beteiligung und Staatsausgaben: Die Auswirkungen des Frauenstimmrechts," IEW - Working Papers iewwp210, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Alois Stutzer & Lukas Kienast, 2004. "Demokratische Beteiligung und Staatsausgaben: Die Auswirkungen des Frauenstimmrechts," CREMA Working Paper Series 2004-26, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA). [Downloadable!]
- Alois Stutzer & Lukas Kienast, 2005. "Demokratische Beteiligung und Staatsausgaben: Die Auswirkungen des Frauenstimmrechts," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 141(IV), pages 617-650, December. [Downloadable!]

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