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Editor's Choice Affirmative Action and the Power of the Elderly

Author

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  • Audinga Baltrunaite
  • Alessandra Casarico
  • Paola Profeta

Abstract

There is evidence that age matters in politics. In this article we study whether implementation of affirmative action policies on gender can generate additional effects on an alternative dimension of representation, namely, the age of politicians. We consider an Italian law which introduced gender quotas in candidate lists for local elections in 1993, and was abolished in 1995. As not all municipalities went through elections during this period, we can identify two groups of municipalities and use a difference in differences estimation to analyze the effect of gender quotas on the age of elected politicians. We find that gender quotas are associated with election of politicians that are younger by more than 1 year. The effect occurs mainly due to the reduction in age of elected male politicians and is consistent with the optimizing behavior of parties or of voters. (JEL codes: D72, J45)

Suggested Citation

  • Audinga Baltrunaite & Alessandra Casarico & Paola Profeta, 2015. "Editor's Choice Affirmative Action and the Power of the Elderly," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 61(1), pages 148-164.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:cesifo:v:61:y:2015:i:1:p:148-164.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/cesifo/ifu032
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Chiara Pronzato & Paola Profeta & Valeria Ferraro & Giulia Ferrari, 2016. "Gender Quotas: Challenging the Boards, Performance, and the Stock Market," Working Papers id:11411, eSocialSciences.
    2. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Maennig, Wolfgang & Mueller, Steffen Q., 2022. "The generation gap in direct democracy: Age vs. cohort effects," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Andreoli, Francesco & Manzoni, Elena & Margotti, Margherita, 2022. "Women at work: Gender quotas, municipal elections and local spending," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    4. Bozzano, Monica, 2017. "On the historical roots of women's empowerment across Italian provinces: religion or family culture?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 24-46.
    5. Giulia Ferrari & Valeria Ferraro & Paola Profeta & Chiara Pronzato, 2022. "Do Board Gender Quotas Matter? Selection, Performance, and Stock Market Effects," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(8), pages 5618-5643, August.
    6. Lassébie, Julie, 2020. "Gender quotas and the selection of local politicians: Evidence from French municipal elections," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets

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