Clearing the air: Women in politics and air pollution

Abstract

Policies and actions are likely to be influenced by the different attitudes to environmental issues of male and female policy-makers. The present paper analyzes the relationship between women politicians and air pollution levels in the context of Italy. We use a gender quota measure (Law 215/2012) as an exogenous shock to the percentage of female municipal councilors. We show that the enforcement of Law 215 significantly reduces the number of days per year when at least one among all the different types of air monitoring stations installed in the provincial capital municipalities detects excess levels of PM10 and PM2.5 with respect to their daily limit. We also assess the causal impact of female in city council on the measures of air pollution by the Wald estimator that shows negative sign meaning that an increase in the percentage of female councilors reduces air pollution. This research provides evidence of the most likely mechanism driving these results by showing that an increase in female officeholders due to Law 215 has a positive impact on a number of environmental friendly policies and measures (e.g. cycle lanes, urban green spaces, district heating) aimed at reducing harmful air particles.