Publication: Are female leaders good for education? : Evidence from India
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2007-08
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Abstract
This paper shows that the gender of politicians affects the educational levels of individuals who
grow up in the districts where these politicians are elected. Increasing female political
representation by 10 percentage points increases the probability that an individual attains
primary education in urban areas by 6 percentage points, which is 21% of the difference in
primary education attainment between the richest and the poorest Indian states. Caste also
matters, as female politicians who won seats reserved for lower castes and disadvantaged tribes
are those who mainly have an effect. In addition, both the gender and caste of politicians
determine who benefits more from their policies: in urban areas female politicians increase
educational achievements of those of their gender and caste. A unique dataset collected on
politicians in India is matched with individual data by cohort and district of residence. The
political data allow the identification of close elections between women and men, which yield
quasi-experimental election outcomes used to estimate the causal effect of the gender of
politicians.
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Education, Gender, Caste, Political economy, India