Working Paper: NBER ID: w26431
Authors: Julien Labonne; Sahar Parsa; Pablo Querubin
Abstract: We investigate the effect of term limits on female political representation. Using data from Philippine municipalities where strict term limits have been in place since 1987, we show that term limits led to a large increase in the number of women running and winning in mayoral elections. However, we show that this increase is entirely driven by female relatives of the term-limited incumbents. We further show that the differential gender impact of this policy is driven by political dynasties' adaptive strategies to stay in power.
Keywords: Political Dynasties; Term Limits; Female Political Empowerment; Philippines
JEL Codes: D72
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| term limits (K16) | increase in the number of women running for and winning mayoral elections (J16) |
| term limits (K16) | increase in the share of dynastic candidates that are female (D79) |
| term limits (K16) | increase in the entry of dynastic women into politics (J12) |
| term-limited incumbents prefer to nominate female relatives (J79) | increase in female political representation (J16) |
| age of term-limited incumbents (J26) | increase reliance on female relatives (J12) |