Gender quotas in development programming: Null results from a field experiment in Congo

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: van der Windt, Peter; Humphreys, Macartan; de la Sierra, Raul Sanchez
• 署名单位: New York University; New York University Abu Dhabi; Wageningen University & Research; Columbia University; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.02.006
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 326-345
• 关键词: gender quotas; Experimental methods; Development aid; Political attitudes and behavior

摘要

We examine whether gender quotas introduced by development agencies empower women. As part of a development program, an international organization created community management committees in 661 villages to oversee village level program expenditures. In a randomly selected half of these villages the organization required the committees to have gender parity. Using data on project choice from all participating villages, data on decision making in a later development project (105 villages), and data on citizen attitudes (200 villages), we find no evidence that gender parity requirements empower women. We discuss potential reasons for the null result, including weakness of these social interventions in terms of the engagement they generate, their time horizon, and the weak delegation of responsibilities.