Brownbag - Abhishek Chakravarty
| Dates: | 26 April 2023 |
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| Times: | 13:00 - 13:50 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Social Sciences |
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Title: Changing the Narrative: A Gender-Targeted Schooling Expansion and Women Leaders in India
Abstract: We examine the impact of a national primary schooling expansion with an accompanying gender awareness campaign on the likelihood that women are elected to state governments in India. We find that voters in treated districts are substantially likelier to elect women shortly after the programme begins, and this effect persists years later. The effect is strongest in districts where the programme increased economic growth and most improved educational infrastructure, consistent with increased voter emphasis on competence relative to candidate gender, which benefits both male and women candidates who are more competent at the cost of less competent male candidates. As further evidence of this reweighting in voter preferences in treated districts, voters are also less likely to vote for the leading party in the state, sacrificing government patronage, and reduce anti-incumbent voting, suggesting greater satisfaction with ruling politicians. The increase in women’s winning probability in treated districts manifests exclusively during polarised elections when party affiliation is more salient for voters than candidate gender, suggesting that the programme does also decrease voters’ overall bias against women leaders, but conditional on their party loyalties.
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Hanson Room
Humanities Bridgeford Street
Manchester
