Discussion paper
DP16605 Women Legislators and Economic Performance
There has been a phenomenal global increase in the proportion of women in politics
in the last two decades, but there is no evidence of how this influences economic perfor-
mance. We investigate this using data on competitive elections to India's state assemblies,
leveraging close elections to isolate causal effects. We find significantly higher growth in
economic activity in constituencies that elect women and no evidence of negative spillovers
to neighbouring male-led constituencies, consistent with net growth. Probing mechanisms,
we find evidence consistent with women legislators being more efficacious, less corrupt and
less vulnerable to political opportunism.
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