The Link between Gender and Political Corruption

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel proposal incorporates four papers that address the link between gender and political corruption. The paper by Lena Wängnerud engages the literature on the causal effects of gender on corruption. She argues that previous work has focused on estimating “average causal effects” but has neglected the identification of the mechanisms that underpin such causal relationship. She proposes to address this shortcoming by doing away with the binary gender classification and focusing instead on individual *degrees* of feminity and masculinity. To do so, she takes advantage of a large-scale survey of Swedish citizens.

The papers by Esarey & Schwindt-Bayer and that by Pereira & Fernandez-Vazquez accept the challenge proposed by Lena Wängnerud. They explicitly examine the mechanism behind gender effects of corruption, with the goal of adjudicating between different explanations: 1) that women are less corruptible because they are more risk-averse or 2) that female politicians are less corrupt only in the short term as a result of their lack of experience in office. Both papers, moreover, adopt an experimental approach that seeks to estimate causal effects. Pereira & Fernandez-Vazquez employ a Regression Discontinuity design (RDD) whereas Esarey & Schwindt-Bayer use a large-scale survey experiment.

Monika Bauhr’s paper closes the panel by taking a step back and adopting a broader lens. Looking at data from 212 European regions, she shows that women and men perceive the prevalence of corruption differently and that leads to a gender gap in the implications of corruption for citizen engagement.

This panel thus puts together a set of papers that speak to each other directly. The discussion will thus be very fruitful for all participants. The paper authors, moreover, are experts on the theme of gender and corruption. The discussants will make a relevant contribution to it. Indeed, both Marko Klasnja and Simon Weschle are accomplished scholars that have published a lot around the topics of corruption and political malfeasance.

To summarize, this is a cohesive panel in terms of thematic interest and methodological approach. It will be of interest to scholars of corruption and of gender and politics. For all these reasons, we believe this panel could make a contribution to the APSA Annual Meeting program.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 31: Women and Politics Research

Cosponsor

• DIVISION 14: Comparative Politics of Advanced Industrial Societies

Individual Presentations

• Moving Beyond Categorical Measures of Gender in Corruption Research - Lena Wangnerud, University of Gothenburg

• Are Women More Resistant to Corruption? A Large-Scale Survey Experiment - Justin E. Esarey, Wake Forest University; Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer, Rice University

• Does Electing Women Reduce Corruption? A Regression Discontinuity Approach - Miguel Maria Pereira, Washington University in St. Louis; Pablo Fernandez-Vazquez, University of Pittsburgh

• How Different Forms of Corruption Influence Electoral Engagement - Monika Bauhr, University of Gothenburg

Chair

• Miguel Maria Pereira Washington University in St. Louis

Discussants

• Marko Klasnja Georgetown University

• Simon Weschle Syracuse University