Women MLAs better at improving growth: Study

NEW DELHI: A study has found that women legislators in India are better at encouraging economic growth in their constituencies than their male counterparts. The findings come at a time when the Narendra Modi government is looking at ways to broaden women's participation in the economy.

As per the study, conducted by UK-based Sonia Bhalotra, professor of economics at the University of Essex, women legislators in India raise economic performance in their constituencies by about 1.8 percentage points per year more than male legislators. The study was supported by Germany-based IZA-Institute of Labour Economics. "This means that when average growth is seven percentage points, the growth premium associated with female legislators is about 25%," Bhalotra said in her study, which was based on data collected from 4,265 state assembly constituencies between 1992 and 2012, spanning four general elections. "This was a period of strong economic growth. It is also a period in which the share of state legislative assembly seats won by women increased, from about 4.5% to close to 8%."

The findings of the study were presented at a seminar on participation of women in politics held in Delhi last month by policy think-tank Brookings India.


“Our findings show that women are more effective than men at raising growth in their constituencies. Ten per cent of women legislators have criminal records in comparison with 32% men," Bhalotra stated in the paper