Gender Bias in the Reelection of Politicians (When a Crisis Strikes)

Zohal Hessami and Temurbek Khasanboev
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Temurbek Khasanboev: Ruhr University Bochum

No 17081, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper sheds light on a neglected reason for women's underrepresentation in politics: crisis-induced gender gaps in incumbents' reelection with lasting negative effects on female representation. We use hand-collected data on 173,339 candidates in open-list local council elections (1997-2021) in the German state of Hesse. We exploit the March 2021 election one year into the Covid-19 pandemic and exclusive local Covid-19 mortality data in a continuous DiD framework. In a setting where (individual) councilors had no role in fighting the pandemic, we provide robust evidence for a gender blame attribution gap: at an average of one death/1,000 inhabitants, an additional death (≈ one SD treatment) leads to a 4.3 and 7.8 ppt lower reelection probability for male and female incumbents, respectively. Further results exclude various alternative mechanisms. Simulations predict persistent negative effects on future female councilor shares of 3-4 ppts.

Keywords: gender; retrospective voting; incumbency; crisis; local elections; political selection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 H12 H70 I18 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 63 pages
Date: 2024-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-lab and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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