The Influence of Politicians’ Sex on Political Budget Cycles: An Empirical Analysis of Spanish Municipalities
Does a politician’s sex influence political budget cycles (PBCs)? We answer this question using a sample of Spanish municipalities from the Madrid region for the period 2010−2019. The Madrid region has a homogenous set of budget rules that allows consistently categorising budget expenditure items as...
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Published in: | MAGKS - Joint Discussion Paper Series in Economics (Band 23-2022) |
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Main Authors: | , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2022
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | PDF Full Text |
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Summary: | Does a politician’s sex influence political budget cycles (PBCs)? We answer this question using a sample of Spanish municipalities from the Madrid region for the period 2010−2019. The Madrid region has a homogenous set of budget rules that allows consistently categorising budget expenditure items as either ‘mandatory’ or ‘non-mandatory’ public services. After differentiating between smaller and larger municipalities, gender influence is studied along two dimensions: mayor’s sex and share of women in government. Our findings include, in regard to mandatory spending in smaller municipalities, that gender-balanced governments induce PBCs. In larger municipalities, when the share of women in government is above 60%, electoral spending is increased by up to 10% of an average municipal budget for mandatory spending, and up to 2.2% for non-mandatory. These findings are generally supported in a mixed-gender close election analysis. |
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Physical Description: | 43 Pages |
ISSN: | 1867-3678 |
DOI: | 10.17192/es2024.0731 |