Publication type
Research Paper
Series Number
6216
Series
IZA Discussion Papers
Authors
Publication date
June 1, 2011
Summary:
We investigate whether politician gender influences policy outcomes in India. We focus upon antenatal and postnatal public health provision since the costs of poor services in this domain are disproportionately borne by women. Accounting for potential endogeneity of politician gender and the sample composition of births, we find that a one standard deviation increase in women's political representation results in a 1.5 percentage point reduction in neonatal mortality. Women politicians are more likely to build public health facilities and encourage antenatal care, institutional delivery and immunization. The results are topical given that a bill proposing quotas for women in state assemblies is currently pending in the Indian Parliament.
Published in
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
Subjects
Link
http://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp6216.html
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