@TechReport{iza:izadps:dp15983,
            	author={Baskaran, Thushyanthan and Hessami, Zohal},
            	title={Women in Political Bodies as Policymakers},
            	year={2023},
	month={Mar},
            	institution={Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)},
            	address={Bonn},
            	type={IZA Discussion Paper},
            	number={15983},
            	url={https://www.iza.org/publications/dp15983},
	abstract={We investigate how female representation impacts policymaking using the example of child care and new hand-collected data on local council elections in Bavaria. RDD estimations (mixed-gender races for last party-specific council seats) show that an additional female councilor accelerates the expansion of public child care by 40%. We also document an important nonlinearity: an additional woman accelerates the expansion of child care only in councils with few women. Council meeting minutes reveal that women can be effective in councils despite being a non-pivotal minority because they change "the conversation". },
	keywords={local councils;political selection;gender composition;child care},
            }