Series: Working Papers. 1834.
Author: Martín Gonzalez-Eiras and Carlos Sanz.
Published in:
Journal of Public Economics, Volume 198, June 2021, 104399
As “Women’s representation in politics: the effect of electoral systems”
Full document
Abstract
We study how electoral systems affect the presence of women in politics using a model
in which both voters and parties might have a gender bias. We apply the model to Spanish
municipal elections, in which national law mandates that municipalities follow one of two
different electoral systems: a closed-list system in which voters pick one party-list, or an
open-list system, in which voters pick individual candidates. Using a regression discontinuity
design, we find that the closed-list system increases the share of women among candidates
and councilors by 2.5 percentage points, and the share of women among mayors by 4.3
percentage points. Our model explains these results as mostly driven by voter bias against
women. We provide evidence that supports the mechanism of the model. In particular, we
show that, when two councilors almost tied in general-election votes, the one with “one more
vote” is substantially more likely to be appointed mayor, but this does not happen when the
most voted was female and the second was male, suggesting the presence of some voter bias.
We also show that, in a subsample of municipalities with low bias — proxied by having had
a female mayor in the past — the difference between the two electoral systems disappears.