Arbeitspapier

Gender interactions within hierarchies: evidence from the political arena

This paper studies gender interactions within hierarchical organizations using a large data set on the duration of Italian municipal governments elected between 1993 and 2003. A municipal government can be viewed as a hierarchy, whose stability over time depends on the degree of cooperation between and within ranks. We find that in municipalities headed by female mayors, the probability of early termination of the legislature is higher. This result persists and becomes stronger when we control for municipality fixed effects as well as non-random sorting of women into municipalities using regression discontinuity in gender-mixed electoral races decided by a narrow margin. The likelihood that a female mayor survives until the end of her term is lowest when the council is entirely male, and in regions with less favorable attitudes towards working women. The evidence is suggestive that female mayors are less able at fostering cooperation among men, or alternatively, that men are more reluctant to be headed by women. Other interpretations receive less support in the data. Our results may provide an alternative explanation for the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 4128

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
State and Local Budget and Expenditures
Personnel Economics: Labor Management
Thema
Cooperativeness
gender
discrimination
government stability
hierarchies
mayors
Gleichberechtigung
Kommunalverwaltung
Regierungschef
Frauen
Dauer
Politische Opposition
Italien

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Gagliarducci, Stefano
Paserman, Marco Daniele
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
(wo)
Bonn
(wann)
2009

Handle
URN
urn:nbn:de:101:1-20090513266
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:44 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Gagliarducci, Stefano
  • Paserman, Marco Daniele
  • Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Entstanden

  • 2009

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