TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Baskaran, Thushyanthan
AU  - Bhalotra, Sonia R.
AU  - Min, Brian
AU  - Uppal, Yogesh
        TI  - Women Legislators and Economic Performance
        PY  - 2018/Jun/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 11596
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp11596
        AB  - There has been a phenomenal global increase in the proportion of women in politics in the last two decades, but there is no evidence of how this influences economic performance. We investigate this using data on competitive elections to India's state assemblies, leveraging close elections to isolate causal effects. We find significantly higher growth in economic activity in constituencies that elect women and no evidence of negative spillovers to neighbouring male-led constituencies, consistent with net growth. Probing mechanisms, we find that women legislators are less likely to be criminal and corrupt, more efficacious, and less vulnerable to political opportunism.
        KW  - political representation
KW  - roads
KW  - economic growth
KW  - luminosity
KW  - women legislators
KW  - corruption
KW  - gender
KW  - India
KW  - identity
KW  - close elections
        ER  -