Electoral gender quotas in post-communist societies: Evidence from Polish municipalities

Abstract: This thesis examines the short-term effects of a legislative gender quota in candidate lists using evidence from local elections in Poland. In the context of open lists systems, quotas were introduced in 2018 in municipalities with proportional representation (over 20,000 inhabitants). Municipalities with less than 20,000 inhabitants employed single-district majority systems and therefore the quota was not applied. Using a Discontinuity-in-Differences (Disc-in-Diff) design, I find that the quota increased the share of women in candidate lists by 12 p.p. However, I do not find any significant change in the share of female councilors or on the composition of municipal councils in terms of age, political experience and education. My analysis suggest that the Polish quota failed to increase female presence in local decision-making bodies, presumably because females were placed at the bottom of the candidate lists.