IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp18559.html

Give More, Receive More? Gender and Cooperativeness Among Politicians

Author

Listed:
  • Frémeaux, Nicolas

    (University of Rouen)

  • Maarek, Paul

    (Université Paris Panthéon-Assas)

Abstract

This paper investigates gender-based differences in cooperativeness among French parliamentarians by analyzing legislative behaviors, such as cosponsorship and voting patterns. Using a comprehensive dataset covering all bills and amendments authored in France's Lower House between 2012 and 2022, we show that female parliamentarians attract fewer cosponsors, particularly from members of their own parties, despite being more likely to support their colleagues' initiatives and exhibit higher voting participation. This asymmetry highlights a paradox: while female legislators display greater cooperative and altruistic behaviors, they receive less reciprocal backing, limiting their legislative influence. The observed patterns are driven by behavioral gender differences rather than differences in observable characteristics, thematic alignment, or the quality of the politicians.

Suggested Citation

  • Frémeaux, Nicolas & Maarek, Paul, 2026. "Give More, Receive More? Gender and Cooperativeness Among Politicians," IZA Discussion Papers 18559, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18559
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp18559.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption

    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:iza:izadps:dp18559. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Mark Fallak (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.html .

    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.