Gender gaps in policy making: Evidence from direct democracy in Switzerland

Patricia Funk and Christina Gathmann

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Abstract: In spite of increasing representation of women in politics, little is known about their impact on policies. Comparing outcomes of parliaments with different shares of female members does not identify their causal impact because of possible differences in the underlying electorate. This paper uses a unique data set on voting decisions to sheds new light on gender gaps in policy making. Our analysis focuses on Switzerland, where all citizens can directly decide on a broad range of policies in referendums and initiatives. We show that there are large gender gaps in the areas of health, environmental protection, defense spending and welfare policy which typically persist even conditional on socio-economic characteristics. We also find that female policy makers have a substantial effect on the composition of public spending, but a small effect on the overall size of government.

Keywords: Female Policy Makers; Political Gender Gaps; Switzerland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H10 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-lab and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (37)

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Journal Article: Gender gaps in policy making: evidence from direct democracy in Switzerland (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:upf:upfgen:1126

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