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Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment

Author

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  • Esther Duflo
  • Raghabendra Chattopadhyay

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 of many local public goods 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. [Working Paper No. 001]

Suggested Citation

  • Esther Duflo & Raghabendra Chattopadhyay, 2010. "Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment," Working Papers id:2786, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2786
    Note: Institutional Papers
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    Cited by:

    1. Chakraborty, Lekha, 2021. "Fiscal Federalism, Expenditure Assignments and Gender Equality," Working Papers 21/334, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    2. Marianne Bertrand & Sandra E Black & Sissel Jensen & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2019. "Breaking the Glass Ceiling? The Effect of Board Quotas on Female Labour Market Outcomes in Norway," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(1), pages 191-239.
    3. 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.
    4. Jonatan Lautenschlage, 2022. "The Influence of Mayors’ Characteristics and Elections on the Composition of Brazilian Municipalities’ Expenditures," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 14(10), pages 1-23, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender; Decentralization; Affirmative action; Political Economy;
    All these keywords.

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