We offer a rationale for the decision to extend the franchise to women within a politico-economic model where men are richer than women, women display a higher preference for public goods, and women’s disenfranchisement carries a societal cost. We first derive the tax rate chosen by the male median voter when women are disenfranchised. Next we show that, as industrialization raises the reward to mental labour relative to physical labour, women’s relative wage increases. When the cost of disenfranchisement becomes higher than the cost of the higher tax rate which applies under universal enfranchisement, the male median voter is better off extending the franchise to women. A consequent expansion of the size of government is only to be expected in societies with a relatively high cost of disenfranchisement. We empirically test the implications of the model over the 1870-1930 period. We proxy the gender wage gap with the level of per capita income and the cost of disenfranchisement with the presence of Catholicism, which is associated with a more traditional view of women’s role and thus a lower cost. The gender gap in the preferences for public goods is proxied by the availability of divorce, which implies marital instability and a more vulnerable economic position for women. Consistently with the model’s predictions, women suffrage is affected positively by per capita income and negatively by the presence of Catholicism and the availability of divorce, while women suffrage increases the size of government only in non-Catholic countries.
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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number
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Find related papers by JEL classification: H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination N40 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, and Regulation - - - General, International, or Comparative O11 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development P16 - Economic Systems - - Capitalist Systems - - - Political Economy of Capitalism
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Sébastien Wälti & Signe Krogstrup, 2006.
"Women and budget deficits,"
Trinity Economics Papers
tep0307, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2007.
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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.
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