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Equitable and sustainable well-being in Italian municipalities: Do women in politics make the difference?

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  • Ermini, Barbara
  • Santolini, Raffaella
  • Ciommi, Mariateresa

Abstract

This paper investigates whether the gender of elected politicians affects the performance of Italian local governments in providing equitable and sustainable well-being to citizens. In fact, Italy was the first country in the European Union to include citizens’ well-being objectives in economic planning. We use data on more than 6000 Italian municipalities for two years to investigate the relationship between gender representation at three bodies of local government with measures of socio-economic and environmental sustainability and find that larger representation of women in municipal leadership, executive and council bodies is significantly associated with improved municipal well-being. These results are also confirmed by accounting for endogenous issues, by adopting an extended definition of well-being and other robustness checks. Differences among northern and southern regions emerge with regard to the effects of incumbent female politicians. Other heterogeneous impacts are unclear or less marked.

Suggested Citation

  • Ermini, Barbara & Santolini, Raffaella & Ciommi, Mariateresa, 2023. "Equitable and sustainable well-being in Italian municipalities: Do women in politics make the difference?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:90:y:2023:i:c:s0038012123002537
    DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2023.101741
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Well-being; Female politicians; Gender; Municipalities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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