Arbeitspapier

Historic Sex-Ratio Imbalances Predict Female Participation in the Market for Politicians

We analyze the long-term effects of gender imbalances on female labor force participation, in particular in the market for politicians. We exploit variation in sex ratios - the number of men divided by the number of women in a region - across Germany induced by WWII. In the 1990 elections, women were more likely to run for office in constituencies that had relatively fewer men in 1946. We do not find a significant effect of the sex ratio on the likelihood of a woman winning the election. These results suggest that while women were more likely to run for a seat in parliament in constituencies with lower historical sex ratios, voters were not more inclined to vote for them. Voter demand effects thus do not appear to be as strong as candidate supply effects.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: Discussion Paper ; No. 113

Classification
Wirtschaft
Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: Europe: 1913-
Subject
female politicians
gender stereotypes
occupational choice
sex imbalance

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Grant, Iris
Kesternich, Iris
Steckenleiter, Carina
Winter, Joachim
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München und Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Transregio 190 - Rationality and Competition
(where)
München und Berlin
(when)
2018

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Grant, Iris
  • Kesternich, Iris
  • Steckenleiter, Carina
  • Winter, Joachim
  • Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München und Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Transregio 190 - Rationality and Competition

Time of origin

  • 2018

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