Women in parliament and fiscal decentralization
- Mỹ Huyền Trần
- 6 days ago
- 1 min read
This study, authored by Nguyen Doan and Dr. Nguyen Phuc Canh (Senior Researcher, HAPRI), examines whether greater female representation in national parliaments promotes fiscal decentralization. The analysis covers 83 countries from 1997 to 2020, using gender quota legislation as a source of exogenous variation to identify causal effects.
The research applies advanced econometric techniques, including difference-in-differences, instrumental variables, and fixed-effects counterfactual estimation, to explore the relationship between women in parliament and three measures of fiscal decentralization: tax decentralization, revenue decentralization, and spending decentralization.
The findings show that countries adopting gender quotas achieve, on average, a 2.4-2.6 percentage-point increase in tax and revenue decentralization compared to those without quotas. Women’s parliamentary presence is positively associated with all decentralization measures, particularly spending, suggesting that female legislators may drive policies that empower local governments to deliver public goods more effectively. The effects are stronger in countries with higher levels of economic development, greater pre-existing tax and revenue decentralization, and larger quota sizes.
Policy implications highlight that gender quotas not only advance gender equality but also strengthen fiscal decentralization and local democracy. By empowering women in legislative bodies, governments can create more inclusive, responsive, and effective fiscal systems.
This study provides new global evidence linking female political empowerment to fiscal policy outcomes, underscoring that women’s participation in parliaments is not only a matter of equality but also of better governance..
Keywords:
Fiscal decentralization
Subnational governments
Gender quotas
Women in parliament
Link:
Citation:
Doan, N., & Nguyen, C. P. (2025). Women in parliament and fiscal decentralization. Economia Politica, 1-28, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40888-025-00380-3
Phan Thi Kim Ngan
