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Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a India-Wide Randomized Policy Experiment

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  • Raghabendra Chattopadhyay
  • Esther Duflo

Abstract

This paper uses political reservations for women in India to study the impact of women's leadership on policy decisions. In 1998, one third of all leadership positions of Village Councils in West Bengal were randomly selected to be reserved for a woman: in these councils only women could be elected to the position of head. Village Councils are responsible for the provision on many local public good in rural areas. Using a data set we collected on 165 Village Councils, we compare the type of public goods provided in reserved and unreserved Villages Councils. We show that women invest more in infrastructure that is directly relevant to the needs of rural women (water, fuel, and roads), while men invest more in education. Women are more likely to participate in the policy-making process if the leader of their village council is a woman.

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  • Raghabendra Chattopadhyay & Esther Duflo, 2001. "Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a India-Wide Randomized Policy Experiment," NBER Working Papers 8615, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8615
    Note: CH PE
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Chakraborty, Lekha, 2014. "Gender responsive budgeting, as fiscal innovation: Evidence from India on "Processes"," Working Papers 14/128, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    3. World Bank, 2005. "Pakistan : Country Gender Assessment, Bridging the Gender Gap, Opportunities and Challenges," World Bank Publications - Reports 8453, The World Bank Group.
    4. Chioma Patricia Adekunle & Augustine Adebayo Kutu & David Alaba Alori, 2021. "Socioeconomic Determinants of Women's Empowerment: A Case of Farm Households in Abeokuta, Ogun State," Eurasian Journal of Economics and Finance, Eurasian Publications, vol. 9(2), pages 67-78.
    5. Timothy Besley & Rohini Pande & Vijayendra Rao, 2005. "Political Selection and the Quality of Government: Evidence from South India," STICERD - Political Economy and Public Policy Paper Series 08, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    6. Caren A. Grown, 2006. "Quick Impact Initiatives For Gender Equality: A Menu of Options," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_462, Levy Economics Institute.
    7. Angus Deaton, 2003. "Health, Inequality, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 113-158, March.
    8. Hallward-Driemeier, Mary & Hasan, Tazeen & Rusu, Anca Bogdana, 2013. "Women's legal rights over 50 years : progress, stagnation or regression ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6616, The World Bank.
    9. Pranab Bardhan, 2002. "Decentralization of Governance and Development," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 185-205, Fall.
    10. Timothy Besley & Robin Burgess, 2003. "Halving Global Poverty," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 3-22, Summer.
    11. Claudio Bravo-Ortega & Nicolas Eterovic & Valentina Paredes, 2016. "Female-male participation in the Parliament. Are we ever going to converge to Scandinavia?," Working Papers wp419, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    12. Chakraborty, Lekha, 2020. "Macroeconomic Policy Coherence for SDG 2030: Evidence from Asia Pacific," Working Papers 20/292, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    13. Svaleryd, Helena, 2002. "Femal Representation - Is it Important for Policy Decisions?," Research Papers in Economics 2002:7, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    14. Rohini Pande, 2003. "Can Mandated Political Representation Increase Policy Influence for Disadvantaged Minorities? Theory and Evidence from India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1132-1151, September.
    15. Mody, Jyothsna, 2004. "Achieving accountability through decentralization : lessons for integrated river basin management," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3346, The World Bank.
    16. Esther Duflo, 2005. "Évaluer l'impact des programmes d'aide au développement : le rôle des évaluations par assignation aléatoire," Revue d’économie du développement, De Boeck Université, vol. 13(2), pages 185-226.
    17. Catalina Tejada & Eliana Ferrara & Henrik Kleven & Florian Blum & Oriana Bandiera & Michel Azulai, 2015. "State Effectiveness, Growth, and Development," Working Papers id:6668, eSocialSciences.

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    JEL classification:

    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • H7 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations

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