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Women's Political Power and Environmental Outcomes

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  • Georgios Voucharas
  • Dimitrios Xefteris

Abstract

Environmental deterioration is believed to affect women more than men. Thus, in the context of democratic decision-making, an increase in the political power of women should lead to better environmental outcomes. In this paper, we test this intuition by estimating how suffrage rights affected countries' emissions using data for the period 1850-2014. By employing a) a difference-in-difference empirical strategy a la Miller (2008) and b) a calibrated regression discontinuity design that focuses on the few years before and after the suffrage reform, we provide -for the first time- robust evidence suggesting that environmental outcomes strongly depend on the extent of women's political participation.

Suggested Citation

  • Georgios Voucharas & Dimitrios Xefteris, 2018. "Women's Political Power and Environmental Outcomes," University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 07-2018, University of Cyprus Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucy:cypeua:07-2018
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Grant Miller, 2008. "Women's Suffrage, Political Responsiveness, and Child Survival in American History," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(3), pages 1287-1327.
    2. David S. Lee & Thomas Lemieux, 2010. "Regression Discontinuity Designs in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 281-355, June.
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    4. Inklaar, Robert & de Jong, Harmen & Bolt, Jutta & van Zanden, Jan, 2018. "Rebasing 'Maddison': new income comparisons and the shape of long-run economic development," GGDC Research Memorandum GD-174, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    5. Li‐Ju Chen, 2013. "Impact of female legislators on support for honest government," International Journal of Development Issues, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(2), pages 158-174, June.
    6. Salahodjaev, Raufhon & Yuldashev, Oybek & Yusupov, Nurmuhammad, 2016. "Women Parliamentarians and Deforestation Around The World," MPRA Paper 70718, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
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    9. Toke Aidt & Bianca Dallal, 2008. "Female voting power: the contribution of women’s suffrage to the growth of social spending in Western Europe (1869–1960)," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 391-417, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. de Bromhead, Alan & Fernihough, Alan & Hargaden, Enda, 2020. "Representation of the People: Franchise Extension and the “Sinn Féin Election” in Ireland, 1918," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 80(3), pages 886-925, September.

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    Keywords

    women's suffrage; emissions; voting rights; political economy; environmental outcomes.;
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