Women in cabinet and public health spending_ evidence across countries.pdf

Econ Gov (2014) 15:281–304 DOI 10.1007/s10101-014-0141-x ORIGINAL PAPER Women in cabinet and public health spending: evidence across countries Astghik Mavisakalyan Received: 4 February 2013 / Accepted: 15 February 2014 / Published online: 2 March 2014 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 Abstract This article studies the effect of women’s cabinet representation on public health policy outcomes. Based on a large sample of countries in the year 2000, the analysis shows that an increase in the share of women in cabinet is associated with an increase in public health spending. There is also an indication of a decrease in the gender gap in life expectancies in places with higher cabinet representation of women. The endogeneity of women’s cabinet representation is accounted for by using the share of daughters that a national leader parents as an instrument. Keywords Politician identity · Gender · Cabinet · Health · Public spending · Life expectancy 1 Introduction There appear to be gender differences in policy preferences. In particular, studies have shown that women prioritise health more than men do (e.g. Shapiro and Mahajan 1 One explanation for women’s higher prioritisation of health is their traditional role as primary care- givers, in which they directly feel “the pinch of tighter budgets and the pain of inadequate health care” (Carpini and Fuchs 1993). A more recent explanation for women’s continuing higher preference for social spending in general focuses on delayed marriages and increases in divorce rates that result in reduction of private transfers from men to women (Edlund and Pande 2002; Edlund et al. 2005). 2 Increased representation of women in the electorate is another mechanism through which gender differences in preferences may translate into changes in policies. Indeed, there is evidence of increased public health spending in response to women’s enfranchisement (e.g. Lott and Kenny 1999; Aidt et al. 20