Fighting violence against women: the role of female political representation?

Authors: Alena Bochenkova, Paolo Buonanno and Sergio Galleta

Invitado: Paolo Buonanno

Profesor de Economía en el Departamento de Economía de la Universidad de Bérgamo

Abstract: 

We investigate the effect of women’s political leadership in local government on violence against women. Using a regression discontinuity design we compare Brazilian municipalities where a female candidate barely won to those where a female candidate barely lost mayoral elections. We estimate that homicides rate of women decreases by 17% and acts of violence by 40% during the term when a female mayor is elected.