Women as policy makers
Subtitle: evidence from an India-wide randomized policy experiment
By: Raghabendra Chattopadhyay [and] Esther Duflo
Contributors: Duflo, Esther, 1972-; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Economics
Series: Working paper series / Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics -- working paper 01-35; Working paper (Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Economics) -- no. 01-35.
Publisher: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 29
Description: This paper uses political reservations for women in India to study the impact of women's leadership on policy decision. In 1998, one third of all leadership positions of Village Councils in West Bengal were randomly selected to be reserved for a woman: in these councils only women could be elected to the position of head. Village Councils are responsible for the provision of many local public goods in rural areas. Using a data set we collected on 165 Village Councils, we compare the type of public goods provided in reserved and unreserved Villages Councils. We show that women invest more in infrastructure that is directly relevant to the needs of rural women (water, fuel, and roads), while men invest more in education. Women are more likely to participate in the policy-making process if the leader of their village council is a woman. Keywords: gender, decentralization, affirmative action, political economy. JEL Classification: H4, H7, I18, J16, O1.
Notes: "October 2001."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 27-29).

Abstract in HTML and working paper for download in PDF available via World Wide Web at the Social Science Research Network.