The Gender Recontest Gap in Elections

Thushyanthan Baskaran and Zohal Hessami

No 14981, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper documents an important but mostly overlooked reason for female underrepresentation in politics: gender gaps in the recontest likelihood of candidates. Using hand-collected data on 116,185 candidates in four consecutive local council elections (2001-2016) in a German state, we provide evidence for a gender recontest gap among both incumbent and non-incumbent candidates. Female candidates are 4 to 5 percentage points less likely than male candidates to run again conditional on previous candidacy. Studying mechanisms, we find that women are likely held back by incompatibilities between family obligations and political duties as well as a culture of male dominance in local politics.

Keywords: local councils; persistence; political selection; gender; candidacy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 D78 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 53 pages
Date: 2021-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen, nep-lab and nep-pol
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Published - published in: European Economic Review, 2022, 145, 104111

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Related works:
Journal Article: The gender recontest gap in elections (2022)
Working Paper: The Gender Recontest Gap in Elections (2022)
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