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Under Pressure: Electoral Competition and Women's Representation

Author

Listed:
  • Campa, Pamela

    (Stockholm School of Economics)

  • Saygin, Perihan

    (Autonomous University of Barcelona)

  • Tumen, Semih

    (Amazon)

Abstract

How can women's representation improve in countries that do not embrace legislated gender quotas? We study municipal elections in Turkey during 2009-2019. A conservative dominant party, Erdogan's AKP, is often challenged by a Kurdish party that promotes gender equality in electoral lists. Exploiting within-municipality variation, we find that the Kurdish party winning leads AKP to increase its share of female candidates by 25 to 30% in the next election. Other opposition parties winning has a substantially lower impact. Our results suggest that one party empowering women can help reducing gender gaps in lists across-the-board.

Suggested Citation

  • Campa, Pamela & Saygin, Perihan & Tumen, Semih, 2024. "Under Pressure: Electoral Competition and Women's Representation," IZA Discussion Papers 17386, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17386
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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