Does Local Female Political Representation Empower Women to Run for Higher Office? Evidence from State and National Legislatures in India

Jul 19, 2026

Upload by Violet

Examines whether increasing women’s representation in early career stages affects women’s presence and performance at the top of the political career ladder. Uses state legislature elections in India narrowly won by female candidates as quasi-experimental variation to study how expanding the pipeline of local political participation influences subsequent national election outcomes. Finds that each additional women-won state election raises the number of female national candidates by 34% and increases female candidates’ average vote share by 2.6 percentage points.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

Introduction

Background and motivation

Career pipeline and political representation

Empirical approach (quasi-random variation)

Results overview (effects on national candidacy and vote share)

Pub lic Disclosure Authorized Pub lic Disclosure Authorized The World Bank Economic Review, 36(1), 2022, 198–218 [https://doi.org10.1093/wber/lhab013](https://doi.org10.1093/wber/lhab013) Article Does Local Female Political Representation Empower Women to Run for Higher Office? Evidence from State and National Legislatures in India Ryan Brown, Hani Mansour, and Stephen D. O’Connell Abstract Does increasing the number of women in career stages that precede high-level positions affect female representation at the top of the career ladder? State legislature elections narrowly won by female candidates in India are exploited to examine the effect of expanding the pipeline of women in local politics on subsequent female representation and success in national legislature elections. For each additional state legislature election won by a woman, there is a 34 percent increase in the number of female candidates contesting in the subsequent national election, and a 2.6 percentage-point increase in the average vote share won per female candidate. This relationship is driven by new female politicians and not by the progression of female state legislators nor by continued candidacy of previous female candidates for the national legislature. JEL classification: H40, M50, O10 Keywords: gender gap, political representation, public service, empowerment, India 1. Introduction Women continue to be underrepresented in leadership positions in academia, the corporate sector, and politics (Bertrand and Hallock 2001; Ginther and Kahn 2014; Bertrand et al. 2019; Bhalotra, ClotsFigueras, and Iyer 2018) . Explanations for the low share of women in high-ranking positions include discrimination, biased beliefs regarding ability, and career–family trade-offs, among others (Wolfers 2006; Bertrand 2009; Bertrand, Golidin, and Katz 2010) . These factors are also likely to affect the creation and growth of a pipeline of women in early-career positions, which can determine the availability of qualified women for higher-ranking positions and change attitudes towards women in professional capacities. Ryan Brown is Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Colorado – Denver, USA; his email address is [ryan.p.brown@ucdenver.edu. Hani Mansour](ryan.p.brown@ucdenver.edu. Hani Mansour) is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Colorado – Denver, USA; his email address [is hani.mansour@ucdenver.edu. Stephen D. O](is hani.mansour@ucdenver.edu. Stephen D. O)’Connell (corresponding author) is Assistant Professor of Economics at Emory University, USA; his email address is [soconnell@emory.edu. The](soconnell@emory.edu. The) authors thank several colleagues for helpful input and discussions, including Clement Imbert, Lakshmi Iyer, and participants in seminars at CU Denver, CU Boulder, NEUDC 2017, Pac-Dev 2018, and the 2019 Barcelona GSE Summer Forum. Francesca Jensenius kindly provided the state legislature data used in the analysis. We are grateful for excellent research assistance by James Reeves. Views expressed are those of the authors and not of any institution with which they are associated. A supplementary online appendix is available with this article at The World Bank Economic Review website. There is no conflict of interest for any author of this manuscript. © The Author(s) 2021 . Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / THE WORLD BANK. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [journals.permissions@oup.com](journals.permissions@oup.com) Downloaded from [https://academic.oup.com/wber/article/36/1/198/6352564 by LEGVP Law Library user on 08 December 2023](https://academic.oup.com/wber/article/36/1/198/6352564 by LEGVP Law Library user on 08 December 2023) The gender gap in high-ranking positions is particularly stark in politics.1 Given that gender disparities in political representation at the national level have been linked to

FAQs

What does the study test about women’s political advancement?

It tests whether increasing the number of women in positions that precede high-level roles affects women’s representation and success at the top of the political career ladder.

How does the paper identify the impact of local female representation?

It exploits state legislature elections in India narrowly won by female candidates to create quasi-random variation in the number of women representing a parliamentary constituency.

What are the main estimated effects on national elections?

Each additional state legislature election won by a woman increases the number of female candidates in the subsequent national election by 34% and raises the average vote share won per female candidate by 2.6 percentage points.

Jul 19, 2026

Upload by Violet