Women Mayors and Management of Spanish Councils: An Empirical Analysis

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the relationship between the gender of mayors in Spanish local government and different budget items. It uses a sample of local budgets for 8,112 town councils between 2002 and 2010, totaling 64,361 observations. The Spanish context is characterized by decentralization of public responsibility to a greater extent than in neighboring countries, feeding the debate on the operational efficiency of local government and the importance of gender in public management. Results show that councils with women mayors have lower annual interest and debt repayment obligations and have higher expenditure on security, protection, and social promotion. Thus, the presence of women in politics may serve to improve councils’ economic situations, which is necessary not only for social justice but also for economic efficiency. In addition, in councils with more inhabitants, women mayors are more common, but women are less likely to occupy the office for longer periods.

KEYWORDS:

• Councils
• gender
• local budgets
• public management
• women mayors
• System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM)

JEL Code:

• J16

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research is part of the project FEM2013-40578-P financed by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Government of Spain). We also acknowledge support from Fundación CajaMurcia.

Notes

1 For example, the Ley de Relaciones Laborales, meaning the “law of labor relations,” which required a husband’s permission for a wife to work for pay, was in force until the end of the dictatorship in 1976.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carmen María Hernández-Nicolás

Carmen María Hernández-Nicolás is a professional freelance economist. She holds a PhD in business administration from the University of Murcia, Spain. Her main research interests are gender diversity, corporate finance, and corporate governance. She has published in international journals such as Economics and Management.

Juan Francisco Martín-Ugedo

Juan Francisco Martín-Ugedo holds a Diploma of Advanced European Studies from College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium, and a PhD in business administration from University of Murcia. He is currently Associate Professor of Corporate Finance at University of Murcia, Spain. His main research topics are corporate finance and corporate governance. He has published in refereed international journals such as Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Business Ethics, and Feminist Economics.

Antonio Mínguez-Vera

Antonio Mínguez-Vera is Associate Professor of Financial Economics at the University of Murcia, Spain. He holds a PhD in economics and business from the Technical University of Cartagena, Spain. His main research topics are gender diversity, corporate finance, and corporate governance. He has published in refereed international journals such as Journal of Business Ethics, International Journal of Human Resource Management, and Feminist Economics.