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Under Pressure: Electoral Competition and Women's Representation

Author

Listed:
  • Campa, Pamela

    (Stockholm School of Economics)

  • Saygin, Perihan

    (Autonomous University of Barcelona)

  • Tumen, Semih

    (Amazon)

Abstract

How can women's representation improve in countries that do not embrace legislated gender quotas? We study municipal elections in Turkey during 2009-2019. A conservative dominant party, Erdogan's AKP, is often challenged by a Kurdish party that promotes gender equality in electoral lists. Exploiting within-municipality variation, we find that the Kurdish party winning leads AKP to increase its share of female candidates by 25 to 30% in the next election. Other opposition parties winning has a substantially lower impact. Our results suggest that one party empowering women can help reducing gender gaps in lists across-the-board.

Suggested Citation

  • Campa, Pamela & Saygin, Perihan & Tumen, Semih, 2024. "Under Pressure: Electoral Competition and Women's Representation," IZA Discussion Papers 17386, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17386
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lucas, Brian Jeffrey & Berry, Zachariah & Giurge, Laura M. & Chugh, Dolly, 2021. "A longer shortlist increases the consideration of female candidates in male-dominant domains," OSF Preprints h7tnc, Center for Open Science.
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    3. De Paola, Maria & Scoppa, Vincenzo & Lombardo, Rosetta, 2010. "Can gender quotas break down negative stereotypes? Evidence from changes in electoral rules," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(5-6), pages 344-353, June.
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    5. Bagues, Manuel & Campa, Pamela, 2021. "Can gender quotas in candidate lists empower women? Evidence from a regression discontinuity design," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    6. Bilge Erten & Pinar Keskin, 2018. "For Better or for Worse?: Education and the Prevalence of Domestic Violence in Turkey," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 64-105, January.
    7. Baltrunaite, Audinga & Casarico, Alessandra & Profeta, Paola & Savio, Giulia, 2019. "Let the voters choose women," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
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    10. Lucas, Brian J. & Berry, Zachariah & Giurge, Laura M. & Chugh, Dolly, 2021. "A longer shortlist increases the consideration of female candidates in male-dominant domains," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115244, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    women political representation; electoral competition;

    JEL classification:

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

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