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The Good, the Bad, and the Different: Can Gender Quotas Raise the Quality of Politicians?

Author

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  • Tavares, José
  • Júlio, Paulo Fernando
Abstract
This paper models, for the first time, the relationship between gender quotas and the quality of elected public officials. In our economy, females and males can be either high or low-skill. The number of high-skill individuals elected for public office determines the overall quality of politicians. Women suffer from gender discrimination in the labor market and in the political market, and are underrepresented in elected political bodies in the status quo. Introducing a quota increases the probability of election for women and decreases it for men. The impact of the quota on quality depends on the skills of those individuals from the discriminated (over-represented) group that are encouraged (discouraged) to run for office. We demonstrate that a higher gender quota only decreases the overall quality of those elected when the rewards from public oce are low, or when the rewards from pubic office are high but women are significantly discriminated against in the political market versus the labor market. In other cases, a quota either decreases quality only initially, but for sufficiently high values there is a positive effect on quality, or leads to immediate increases in quality. Our model also formalizes the role that policies fighting discrimination may have on the number and type of women elected.

Suggested Citation

  • Tavares, José & Júlio, Paulo Fernando, 2010. "The Good, the Bad, and the Different: Can Gender Quotas Raise the Quality of Politicians?," CEPR Discussion Papers 7917, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7917
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. ¿Comprometen las cuotas la calidad de los políticos? No parece.
      by Luis Abenza in Politikon on 2015-03-24 14:02:44

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    3. Jean-Benoît Eymeoud & Paul Vertier, 2018. "Gender Biases: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in French Local Elections," Post-Print hal-03393139, HAL.
    4. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3k0m7r593p8gs9njjtpupmlknu is not listed on IDEAS
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    6. Anderson, Siwan & Francois, Patrick, 2023. "Reservations and the politics of fear," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    7. Chareyron, Sylvain & L'Horty, Yannick & Mbaye, Souleymane & Petit, Pascale, 2023. "Reducing ethnic discrimination through formal warning: Evidence from two combined field experiments," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    8. Jean-Benoît Eyméoud, 2018. "Housing and discrimination in economics : an empirical approach using Big Data and natural experiments [Logement et discrimination en économie : une approche empirique mêlant expérience naturelle e," SciencePo Working papers tel-03419360, HAL.
    9. Jean-Benoît Eyméoud & Paul Vertier, 2023. "Gender biases: evidence from a natural experiment in French local elections," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 38(113), pages 3-56.
    10. Alessandra Casarico & Paola Profeta, 2020. "Introduction Special Issue “On Gender Perspectives in Public Economics”," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 235(4), pages 3-10, December.
    11. Lassébie, Julie, 2020. "Gender quotas and the selection of local politicians: Evidence from French municipal elections," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    12. Jean-Benoît Eyméoud, 2018. "Housing and discrimination in economics : an empirical approach using Big Data and natural experiments [Logement et discrimination en économie : une approche empirique mêlant expérience naturelle e," SciencePo Working papers Main tel-03419360, HAL.
    13. Casarico, Alessandra & Lattanzio, Salvatore & Profeta, Paola, 2022. "Women and local public finance," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    14. Subrat Sarangi & R. K. Renin Singh & Barun Kumar Thakur, 2023. "Interrelationship between Share of Women in Parliament and Gender and Development: A Critical Analysis," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-15, April.
    15. Aris Trantidis, 2017. "The problem of constitutional legitimation: what the debate on electoral quotas tells us about the legitimacy of decision-making rules in constitutional choice," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 195-208, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Citizen-candidate games; Gender discrimination; Political quotas; Quality of politicians;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E0 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General
    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination

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