The Size of Local Legislatures and Women's Political Representation: Evidence from Brazil

Gabriel Correa () and Ricardo A. Madeira ()

No 2014_04, Working Papers, Department of Economics from University of São Paulo (FEA-USP)

Abstract: Exploiting the exogenous changes in local legislature size at certain population thresholds in Brazil, this paper investigates whether the number of legislators can impact the political participation of women, a group that is extremely underrepresented in Brazilian politics. The results suggest that the number of seats in the legislature has a significant positive impact on women's presence in the political sphere, and we show that these effects are direct consequences of changes in local political competition. We also report that the representation of women in the decision-making process influences the municipal provision of public goods and services.

Keywords: Legislature Size; Women’s Political Representation; Regression Discontinuity Design. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 D78 H41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-04-23
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-lam and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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