Gender, Electoral Competition, and Sanitation in India

Bibliographic Data

ID6247643
AuthorsYujung Julia Lee (0000-0003-0694-622X), Yujung Lee (University of California, Los Angeles, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume50
Issue4
Pages587-605
Publication date2018-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueComparative Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-4159 • E-ISSN: 2151-6227
PublisherComparative Politics CUNY (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5129/001041518823565669
OpenAlexW2613827591
LanguageEN
Citations received5

Although electoral competition plays a central role in government responsiveness, the literature on women in politics pays little attention to this factor when considering whether female politicians make different policy choices from their male counterparts. This study does so by examining policy outcomes regarding sanitation, a basic service that disproportionately affects women and children. It examines how the gender of politicians and the degree of electoral competition explain variations in high-quality and low-quality latrines in India. Drawing from district level data across fifteen major states in India from 2006 to 2011, this paper exploits the quasi-randomness of the gender of the winner in highly competitive elections to estimate the influence of female legislators. The results show that, even after considering the role of electoral competition, female politicians do make different decisions towards women-friendly issues compared to their male counterparts by focusing on delivering high-quality latrines that can make a bigger difference on women’s well-being

Business · Competition (biology · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Government (linguistics · Latrine · Political science · Politics · Public economics · Quality (philosophy · Sanitation · Gender Politics and Representation

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access