IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/aak/wpaper/22-001.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do female parliamentarians improve environmental quality? Cross-country evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Simplice A. Asongu

    (Yaounde, Cameroon)

  • Raufhon Salahodjaev

    (Tashkent, Uzbekistan)

Abstract

This study explores the empowerment of women in politics on the environmental sustainability. Using data for the period 2015-2019 from 179 countries, we investigate the link between representation of women in parliament and the Environmental Performance Index (EPI). To explore the causal effect, we rely on gender quotas, language intensity and land suitability for agriculture as instruments for the share of women in parliament. Our results suggest that 10 percentage points increase in instrumented proportion of women in parliament leads to 7.1 points increase in the EPI. The results remain robust to a number of robustness checks.

Suggested Citation

  • Simplice A. Asongu & Raufhon Salahodjaev, 2022. "Do female parliamentarians improve environmental quality? Cross-country evidence," Working Papers of The Association for Promoting Women in Research and Development in Africa (ASPROWORDA). 22/001, The Association for Promoting Women in Research and Development in Africa (ASPROWORDA).
    • Handle: RePEc:aak:wpaper:22/001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://publications.asproworda.org/RePEc/aak/aak-wpaper/Do-Female-Parliamentarians-Improve-Environmental-Quality-Cross-Country-Evidence.pdf
    File Function: Revised version, 2022
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hicks, Daniel L. & Hicks, Joan Hamory & Maldonado, Beatriz, 2016. "Women as policy makers and donors: Female legislators and foreign aid," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 46-60.
    2. Swamy, Anand & Knack, Stephen & Lee, Young & Azfar, Omar, 2001. "Gender and corruption," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 25-55, February.
    3. Lori M. Hunter & Alison Hatch & Aaron Johnson, 2004. "Cross‐National Gender Variation in Environmental Behaviors," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 85(3), pages 677-694, September.
    4. Chun Jiang & Xiaoxin Ma, 2019. "The Impact of Financial Development on Carbon Emissions: A Global Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-22, September.
    5. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2020. "How enhancing gender inclusion affects inequality: Thresholds of complementary policies for sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 132-142, January.
    6. Laura Policardo, 2016. "Is Democracy Good for the Environment? Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Regime Transitions," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 64(2), pages 275-300, June.
    7. Alberto Alesina & Paola Giuliano & Nathan Nunn, 2013. "On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(2), pages 469-530.
    8. Raufhon Salahodjaev & Dilyafruz Jarilkapova, 2019. "Female parliamentarism and genuine savings: A cross‐country test," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 637-646, July.
    9. Kunofiwa Tsaurai & Bester Chimbo, 2019. "The Impact of Information and Communication Technology on Carbon Emissions in Emerging Markets," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 9(4), pages 320-326.
    10. Simplice A. Asongu & Omang O. Messono & Keyanfe T. J. Guttemberg, 2021. "Women political empowerment and vulnerability to climate change: evidence from developing countries," Working Papers of The Association for Promoting Women in Research and Development in Africa (ASPROWORDA). 21/001, The Association for Promoting Women in Research and Development in Africa (ASPROWORDA).
    11. Victor Gay & Estefania Santacreu-Vasut & Amir Shoham, 2013. "The Grammatical Origins of Gender Roles," Working Papers hal-04046900, HAL.
    12. Asongu, Simplice A. & Odhiambo, Nicholas M., 2021. "Inequality, finance and renewable energy consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(P1), pages 678-688.
    13. Jha, Chandan Kumar & Sarangi, Sudipta, 2018. "Women and corruption: What positions must they hold to make a difference?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 219-233.
    14. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Jin, Yan-Lin & Chevallier, Julien & Shen, Bo, 2016. "The effect of corruption on carbon dioxide emissions in APEC countries: A panel quantile regression analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 220-227.
    15. Kais, Saidi & Sami, Hammami, 2016. "An econometric study of the impact of economic growth and energy use on carbon emissions: Panel data evidence from fifty eight countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1101-1110.
    16. Cong Minh Huynh, 2020. "Shadow economy and air pollution in developing Asia: what is the role of fiscal policy?," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 22(3), pages 357-381, July.
    17. Stern, David I. & Common, Michael S. & Barbier, Edward B., 1996. "Economic growth and environmental degradation: The environmental Kuznets curve and sustainable development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(7), pages 1151-1160, July.
    18. Dollar, David & Fisman, Raymond & Gatti, Roberta, 2001. "Are women really the "fairer" sex? Corruption and women in government," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 423-429, December.
    19. Salahodjaev, Raufhon & Azam, Sardor, 2015. "Intelligence and gender (in)equality: empirical evidence from developing countries," MPRA Paper 66295, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Dinuk S. Jayasuriya & Paul J. Burke, 2013. "Female parliamentarians and economic growth: evidence from a large panel," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 304-307, February.
    21. Zhou, Nan & Zhang, Jingjing & Khanna, Nina & Fridley, David & Jiang, Shan & Liu, Xu, 2019. "Intertwined impacts of water, energy development, and carbon emissions in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 78-91.
    22. A. Kahuthu, 2006. "Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation in a Global Context," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 55-68, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jean C. Kouam & Simplice A. Asongu & Bin J. Meh & Robert Nantchouang & Fri L. Asanga & Denis Foretia, 2022. "Duration of Support and Financial Health of Business Support Structures in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Ghana: A Micro-Econometric Analysis," Working Papers 22/048, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).

    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. Ziroat Mirziyoyeva & Raufhon Salahodjaev, 2022. "Women’s Parliamentary Representation and Sustainable Development Goals: a Cross-Country Evidence," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(2), pages 871-883, April.
    2. Raufhon Salahodjaev & Barno Abdullaeva & Shakhnoza Tosheva & Arletta Isaeva, 2021. "Female Parliamentarians and the Distribution of National Happiness," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(4), pages 1571-1585, August.
    3. Mavisakalyan, Astghik & Tarverdi, Yashar, 2019. "Gender and climate change: Do female parliamentarians make difference?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 151-164.
    4. Sosson Tadadjeu & Alim Belek & Henri Njangang & Marie-Laure Belomo & Brice Kamguia, 2021. "Does women's political empowerment promote public health expenditure in Africa?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(3), pages 1959-1969.
    5. Simplice A. Asongu & Cheikh T. Ndour & Judith C. M. Ngoungou, 2023. "The effects of gender political inclusion and democracy on environmental performance: evidence from the method of moments by quantile regression," Working Papers of The Association for Promoting Women in Research and Development in Africa (ASPROWORDA). 23/013, The Association for Promoting Women in Research and Development in Africa (ASPROWORDA).
    6. Mougnol A Ekoula, Hervé William & Kamguia, Brice & Ndoya, Hermann, 2023. "Do women hold the key to financial sector development in Africa?," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 233-248.
    7. Debski, Julia & Jetter, Michael & Mösle, Saskia & Stadelmann, David, 2018. "Gender and corruption: The neglected role of culture," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 526-537.
    8. Valentina Chiariello, 2022. "What happens when women in politics deal with foreign aid: The case of Sub-Saharan countries," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 75(300), pages 25-46.
    9. Sugat Chaturvedi & Sabyasachi & Kanika Mahajan, 2021. "The Importance of being Earnest: What Explains the Gender Quota Effect in Politics?," Working Papers 52, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    10. Kyunga Na & Young-Hee Kang & Yang Sok Kim, 2018. "The Effect of Corporate Governance on the Corruption of Firms in BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India & China)," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-16, May.
    11. Gautam Hazarika, 2018. "The plough, gender roles, and corruption," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 141-163, May.
    12. Baraldi, Anna Laura & Ronza, Carla, 2019. "Organized crime and women in politics: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in southern Italy," MPRA Paper 98473, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Gonzalo F. Forgues‐Puccio & Erven Lauw, 2021. "Gender inequality, corruption, and economic development," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(4), pages 2133-2156, November.
    14. Anna Laura Baraldi & Erasmo Pagani & Marco Stimolo, 2022. "Neutralizing the Tentacles of Organized Crime. Assessment of an Anti-Crime Measure in Fighting Mafia Violence," Working Papers 2022.18, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    15. Braga, Michela & Scervini, Francesco, 2017. "The performance of politicians: The effect of gender quotas," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-14.
    16. Monika Bauhr & Nicholas Charron, 2020. "Do Men and Women Perceive Corruption Differently? Gender Differences in Perception of Need and Greed Corruption," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 92-102.
    17. Wellalage, Nirosha Hewa & Fernandez, Viviana & Thrikawala, Sujani, 2020. "Corruption and innovation in private firms: Does gender matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    18. Alice Guerra & Tatyana Zhuravleva, 2022. "Do women always behave as corruption cleaners?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 191(1), pages 173-192, April.
    19. Jha, Chandan Kumar & Sarangi, Sudipta, 2018. "Women and corruption: What positions must they hold to make a difference?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 219-233.
    20. Debski, Julia & Jetter, Michael, 2015. "Gender and Corruption: A Reassessment," IZA Discussion Papers 9447, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    environmental performance; women in parliament;

    JEL classification:

    • Q50 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - General
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:aak:wpaper:22/001. 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: SIMEN TCHAMYOU Vanessa (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://asproworda.org .

    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.