Clearing the Air: Women in Politics and Air Pollution

Anna Laura Baraldi and Giovanni Fosco

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Differing attitudes towards environmental issues between men and women as policymakers may affect policies and actions. Accordingly, this research analyses the issue of the causal relationship between women politicians and the level of air pollution. The analysis tests for this in Italy, exploiting a gender quota measure (Law 215/2012) as an exogenous shock to the percentage of female municipal councilors. Difference-indifferences instrumental variable approach finds that an increase in the percentage of female councilors decreases the maximum number of days in which at least one type of monitoring stations (among all the stations installed in the provincial capital municipality) has detected an excess of PM10 with respect to its daily limit. This research provides evidence of the most likely mechanism driving the results by proving that an increase in female officeholders has a positive impact on a number of environmental friendly policies and measures (as the bicycle lanes, the urban green, the bike- and carsharing services, district heating and traffic blockage) aimed at reducing the harmful air particles.

Keywords: Air pollution; Gender quotas; Municipal elections; Female politicians (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C26 D72 J16 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-07-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-gen and nep-pol
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:121377

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