Welfare Spending and Women's Political Preferences: Evidence from Italy

• In Event: The Causes and Consequences of Women’s Representation

Abstract

Do women pursue distinct spending preferences from men, particularly with a greater emphasis on welfare provision compared to security? While women and men both desire a safe environment in which to live, women are more likely to prioritize welfare spending by devoting resources to particular sectors such as education. Relying on the adoption of a gender quota that applies only in larger Italian municipalities, we evaluate whether greater women's political representation translates into more spending on education and correspondingly less spending on the police. Our findings support the argument that women's descriptive representation can lead directly to women's substantive representation.

Authors

• Emanuel Coman, Trinity College Dublin

• Sarah Shair-Rosenfield, University of York