Female political representation and social spending

Abstract: This thesis investigates whether the share of female legislative representation on a national level has an impact on public expenditure on social issues such as health care, education and elderly care. Using panel data primarily from the Comparative Welfare States dataset I perform a within-country analysis over time using both OLS and IV estimations. I use two instruments, laws on gender quota and average female political representation in neighboring countries. The data includes 22 OECD countries followed between 1980 and 2011. The economic literature on the role of a politician’s gender in policymaking is still somewhat in its infancy and has largely been empirical. Assuming that the preferences of women and men differ, the gender of a political representative matters only if policy commitment is not complete. This implies that the politician can sidestep from the preferences of its constituent group and also take personal preferences into account. As the number of female representatives increases, this group gains bargaining power. Implemented policies will reflect this change in bargaining power and become more in favor of women’s preferences. I find some evidence of female political representation having a positive impact on social public spending. The findings are however not robust using the OLS technique, only the IV technique. Therefore, I consider my findings to be inconclusive.