Do Female Representatives Adhere More Closely to Citizens' Preferences Than Male Representatives?

Arbeitspapier

We analyze whether female or male members of parliament adhere more closely to citizens' revealed preferences with quasi-experimental data. By matching individual representatives' voting behavior on legislative proposals with real referenda outcomes on the same issues, we identify the effect of gender on representatives' responsiveness to revealed preferences of the majority of voters. Overall, female members of parliament tend to adhere less to citizens' preferences than male parliamentarians. However, when party affiliation is controlled for, the effect of gender vanishes. These results are consistent with other evidence showing that women are more socially minded and tend to affiliate themselves more with left parties.

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• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CREMA Working Paper ; No. 2012-02

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Demographic Economics: General
• Subject: Gender ; Discrimination ; Voter Preferences ; Political Economy

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Stadelmann, David ; Portmann, Marco ; Eichenberger, Reiner
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA)
• (where): Basel
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/214506