The challenge
Usually the majority of candidates on Italian municipal election lists were male.
The case
Under Law 81/1993, neither sex could represent more than two thirds of the candidates on electoral lists for municipal councils, and lists that did not comply were refused. In 1995 the Constitutional Court abolished the quota (Judgment 422/1995), finding it violated the principle of equality between the sexes. Because not all municipalities held elections while the law was in force, Audinga Baltrunaite, Piera Bello, Alessandra Casarico and Paola Profeta compared municipalities affected by the quota with those never affected, using a difference-in-differences design. They found that the quotas were associated with an increase in the quality of elected politicians of 0.12 to 0.24 years of education, due not only to more elected women, who were on average more educated than the men, but also to fewer low-educated elected men. They also confirmed positive effects on the number of women elected, as documented by earlier research.
Why it worked
The authors report that the positive effect on quality is confirmed with alternative measures, 'persists in the long run' and is robust to controlling for political ideology and competition.
Sources
- Baltrunaite, A., Bello, P., Casarico, A., & Profeta, P. (2014). Gender quotas and the quality of politicians. Journal of Public Economics, 118, 62–74.
- Baltrunaite, A., Bello, P., Casarico, A., & Profeta, P. (2013). Gender quotas and the quality of politicians. FEDEA Documento de Trabajo 2013-11.
Spot an error or know a better source? Tell us