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Women Politicians, Gender Bias, and Policy-making in Rural India

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  • Lori Beaman

Abstract

Despite the importance of this issue for the design of institutions around the world, little is known about the relative performance of women as policy makers, about their impact on child development and about how their performance is evaluated by voters. This paper exploits the fact that in India, mandated political representation for women in local governments (Gram Panchayats) was implemented in a randomized manner to present some insights on the causal impact of women as policy makers. The authors focus on the policy decisions of female village council leaders as they affect children, families and other women. The advantage of looking at village councils in India is that the randomized selection of the councils reserved for women eliminates most of the econometric problems mentioned above and allows authors to provide clear evidence on the impact of women’s leadership on policy decisions. [Background paper for the State of the World's Children]

Suggested Citation

  • Lori Beaman, 2007. "Women Politicians, Gender Bias, and Policy-making in Rural India," Working Papers id:835, eSocialSciences.
  • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:835
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Sugat Chaturvedi & Sabyasachi Das & Kanika Mahajan, 2021. "The importance of being earnest: What explains the gender quota effect in politics?," Discussion Papers 21-02, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
    2. Matthias Doepke & Michèle Tertilt, 2019. "Does female empowerment promote economic development?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 309-343, December.
    3. Magdalena Delaporte & Francisco Pino, 2022. "Female Political Representation and Violence Against Women: Evidence from Brazil," Working Papers wp534, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    4. Thushyanthan Baskaran & Sonia Bhalotra & Brian Min & Yogesh Uppal, 2018. "Women legislators and economic performance," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-47, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Rustagi, Niharika & Akter, Sonia, 2022. "The impact of women's political representation on child health outcomes during 1990–2020: Evidence from a global dataset," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    6. Elizabeth Kaletski & Nishith Prakash, 2016. "Affirmative action policy in developing countries: Lessons learned and a way forward," WIDER Working Paper Series 052, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Hessami, Zohal & da Fonseca, Mariana Lopes, 2020. "Female political representation and substantive effects on policies: A literature review," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    8. Elizabeth Kaletski & Nishith Prakash, 2016. "Affirmative action policy in developing countries: Lessons learned and a way forward," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-52, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Konte, Maty & Osei Kwadwo, Victor & Zinyemba, Tatenda, 2019. "Women's political and reproductive health empowerment in Africa: A literature review," MERIT Working Papers 2019-044, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    10. Baskaran, Thushyanthan & Hessami, Zohal, 2023. "Women in Political Bodies as Policymakers," IZA Discussion Papers 15983, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Deniz Güvercin, 2020. "Women in Politics and Child Labor: an Instrumental Variable Approach," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 32(4), pages 873-888, September.

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