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Papa does preach: Daughters and polarization of attitudes toward abortion

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  • Van Effenterre, Clémentine

Abstract

This article examines the hypothesis that having daughters polarizes male politicians’ attitudes toward abortion right. Using French and U.S voting records, I estimate that having daughters decreases support for abortion law by 25% for right-wing congressmen in France and has zero effect on left-wing members. It increases support among Democrats in the United States by 12%, while it has no effect on Republican congressmen. I find similar behavioral patterns for voters using electoral surveys, documenting that the results hold both for politicians and citizens. Robustness checks confirm that this result is not an artefact of endogenous fertility decisions. These findings are consistent with a formal model predicting that fathers with paternalistic preferences adopt a more polarized political position on abortion when they have a daughter rather than a son.

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  • Van Effenterre, Clémentine, 2020. "Papa does preach: Daughters and polarization of attitudes toward abortion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 188-201.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:179:y:2020:i:c:p:188-201
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.08.049
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    2. Lippmann, Quentin, 2022. "Gender and lawmaking in times of quotas," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Voting; Polarization; Gender; Political behavior; Attitudes; Abortion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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