This is the second of the Evidence-Based Policy Analysis seminar seriesGuest Speaker: Audinga Baltrunaite, Bank of Italy
Moderator: Caitlin Brown, Assistant Professor, SPP
Let the Voters Choose Women
We study the effectiveness of a novel measure to reduce gender gaps in political empowerment: double preference voting conditioned on gender, coupled with gender quotas on candidate lists. This policy was introduced in 2012 in Italian municipal elections. Using a regression discontinuity design, we fi nd that the share of female councilors rises by 18 percentage points. The result is mainly driven by an increase in preference votes cast for female candidates, suggesting a salient role of double preference voting. We also detect changes in voters’ behavior in casting preferences in higher level elections, suggesting the presence of spill-over effects of the double preference voting policy.
Audinga Baltrunaite is an economist at the research department of the Bank of Italy, Economics and Law Division. She is also affiliated to the Dondena Gender Initiative, Bocconi University. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES), Stockholm University. Her main research areas are public economics, political economics and gender economics.
For her publications please visit her website.
The Evidence-based Policy Analysis seminar series hosted by SPP brings together researchers across multiple departments at CEU interested in empirical issues related to public policy. Invited external speakers from both the academic and public sectors present research that uses rigorous evidence-based methodology to answer pertinent policy questions related to a range of topics, such as economic development, gender equality, demographic trends, and governance.
Next in the Series: Kevin Munger, Princeton University “Temporal Validity in Online Politics” Thursday, March 7, 2019. Nador 15, Quantum 101 4-5:15PM