ABSTRACT

We study the effects of giving poor females the right to vote in local elections on education spending and teacher-student ratios. To estimate causal effects, we exploit a national voting reform in Norwegian local elections that removed socioeconomic restrictions on female voting rights. The identification strategy exploits heterogeneous changes in the share of females in the voting franchise from the pre-reform (1907) to the post-reform election (1910) across local governments. While US studies find positive effects on government spending of the introduction of female suffrage, we find no systematic effects on education spending, despite a significant increase in female turnout.

摘要

我们研究了赋予贫困女性在地方选举中的投票权对教育支出和师生比例的影响。为了估计因果效应，我们利用挪威地方选举中的全国投票改革，消除了对女性投票权的社会经济限制。识别策略利用了从改革前（1907 年）到改革后选举（1910 年）地方政府选举中女性比例的异质变化。虽然美国研究发现引入女性选举权对政府支出产生积极影响，但我们发现教育支出没有系统性影响，尽管女性投票率显着增加。