The representation of women in parliament is a subject that has been up for debate since the beginning of the 20th century and the beginning of women’s suffrage. Gender quotas is a way to increase the representation of women in modern parliaments, even in the Swedish riksdag. This qualitative, comparative study shows that out of the eight Swedish parties of parliament, six is implementing gender quotas but in different ways and for different reasons. These reasons get brought into light in official party documents where the parties discuss their stance on gender equality politics and gender quotas. The parties’ opinion on gender quota is defined by three different kind of arguments: the argument of equal representation, the argument of resources and the argument of interest. The left-wing parties tend to use all three of the arguments, while the right-wing parties tend to be more sceptical of the use of gender quotas and therefore use two or less arguments. The parties’ stance on gender quotas are furthermore analysed from the perspective of the theory of feminist institutionalism. Parties who use all three of the arguments, or all the argument except the argument of resources, tend to have a feminist approach to their politics. These parties use gender quota as a way of reforming the parliament’s structure. Other parties who focus on justice and resource as arguments of gender quotas is often more conservative or focused on preserving the structure on which the riksdag is built upon.

The objective of this study is to empirically investigate the differences in human capital profile of new appointed female directors to corporate boards as a result of mandatory quotas and voluntary targets. By exploring differences in age, and human capital differences in board tenure, executive experience (CEO, CFO), number of qualifications, and the number of directorships held by these women, this study contributes to the important and current international public policy decision debate on relevance and wisdom of adopting a mandatory gender quota or introducing voluntary targets. The study uses human capital theory to evaluate the profiles of 41 new female directors appointed through a mandatory quota in Norway and 397 new female directors appointed through voluntary targets in Australia and extends the current corporate governance literature on board gender regulation by exploring whether female directors differ in human capital as a result of the two types of regulations. The results of this study show that new female directors hired through a quota are on average younger than new female directors hired through a target; new female directors hired through a quota are less likely to have more years of board experience than new female directors hired through a target; new female directors hired through a quota are likely to have more years of executive experience than new female directors hired through a target; and new female directors hired through a quota have lower number of qualifications than new female directors hired through a target. These results, albeit contrary to the hypotheses developed in this study, propose several important implications from an academic, management, and policy point of view while at the same time have limitations that present opportunities for future research.

Despite global progress on gender equality, women continue to be underrepresented in politics. One widely debated policy measure aimed at tackling this issue is gendered public funding – which has been adopted in more than 30 countries worldwide yet remains understudied in the literature on gender and politics. In this thesis, I address that research gap and examine the broader impact of electoral, political, and cultural factors on gendered political funding by conducting quantitative cross-national analyses. I used data from four different sources, such as the International IDEA Political Finance Database, the IDEA Quota Database, QOG, and V-Dem, to examine the relationship between these factors and the probability of gendered public funding adoption. It is evident from the findings of this thesis that the presence of quotas has a significant influence on determining the likelihood of adopting gender-specific public funding policies, with countries implementing quotas demonstrating a higher likelihood of adopting such policies. Contrary to theoretical expectations concerning electoral and cultural variables and earlier research, no significant effects are found. The thesis offers valuable insights into the interplay between political trends, electoral institutions, cultural dynamics, and financial mechanisms in shaping gender equality initiatives. While gender quotas may enhance the probability of gender public funding, exploring all relevant contextual factors is critical.

Political Finance Reform and Public Procurement:  Evidence from Lithuania. Can political donations buy influence? This paper studies whether firms trade political contributions for public procurement contracts. To answer this question, I focus on the Lithuanian political economy. Combining data on a large number of government tenders, the universe of corporate donors and firm characteristics, I examine how a ban on corporate donations affects the awarding of procurement contracts to companies that donated in the past. Consistent with political favoritism, contributing firms’ probability of winning goes down by five percentage points as compared to that of non-donor firms after the ban. Among different mechanisms, the hypothesis that corporate donors get confidential information on competing bids prevails. The empirical results are in line with predictions from a first-price sealed-bid auction model with one informed bidder. Evidence on firm bidding and victory margins suggests that contributing firms adjust their bids in order to secure contracts at a maximum revenue. I assess that tax payers save almost one percent of GDP thanks to the reform. Gender Quotas and the Quality of Politicians. We analyze the effects of the introduction of gender quotas in candidate lists on the quality of elected politicians, as measured by the average number of years of education. We consider an Italian law which introduced gender quotas in local elections in 1993, and was abolished in 1995. As not all municipalities went through elections during this period, we identify two groups of municipalities and use a difference-in-differences estimation. We find that gender quotas are associated with an increase in the quality of elected politicians, with the effect ranging from 0.12 to 0.24 years of education. This effect is due not only to the higher number of elected women, who are on average more educated than men, but also to the lower number of low-educated elected men. The positive effect on quality is confirmed when we measure the latter with alternative indicators, it persists in the long run and it is robust to controlling for political ideology and political competition. Affirmative Action and the Power of the Elderly. There is evidence that age matters in politics. In this article we study whether implementation of affirmative action policies on gender can generate additional effects on an alternative dimension of representation, namely, the age of politicians. We consider an Italian law which introduced gender quotas in candidate lists for local elections in 1993, and was abolished in 1995. As not all municipalities went through elections during this period, we can identify two groups of municipalities and use a difference-in-differences estimation to analyze the effect of gender quotas on the age of elected politicians. We find that gender quotas are associated with election of politicians that are younger by more than one year. The effect occurs mainly due to the reduction in age of elected male politicians and is consistent with the optimizing behavior of parties or of voters. Let the Voters Choose Women. Female under-representation in politics can be the result of parties' selection of candidates and/or of voters’ electoral preferences. To assess the impact of these two channels, we exploit the introduction of Italian Law 215/2013, which prescribes both gender quotas on candidate lists and double preference voting conditioned on gender. Using a regression discontinuity design, we estimate that the law increases the share of elected female politicians by 22 percentage points. The result is driven by the increase in preference votes cast for female candidates, suggesting a salient role of double preference voting in promoting female empowerment in politics.

Submitted by Bernardo Dantas Pereira Coelho (bernardo.coelho27@gmail.com) on 2018-05-02T21:35:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Doutorado - Bernardo Coelho.pdf: 2101693 bytes, checksum: 84ef02769381cf1afb6f413b79ebde05 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by GILSON ROCHA MIRANDA (gilson.miranda@fgv.br) on 2018-05-28T16:24:46Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Doutorado - Bernardo Coelho.pdf: 2101693 bytes, checksum: 84ef02769381cf1afb6f413b79ebde05 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-14T20:31:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Doutorado - Bernardo Coelho.pdf: 2101693 bytes, checksum: 84ef02769381cf1afb6f413b79ebde05 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-18 / Essa tese contém três capítulos. O primeiro capítulo estuda a relação entre o programa brasileiro de transferência condicional de renda Bolsa Família e os resultados das eleições de 2010. Nós procuramos estimar esse efeito utilizando uma abordagem estrutural, identificando características individuais que afetam o impacto eleitoral do programa. Fazemos isso utilizando um modelo mixed logit, um modelo de escolha discreta que considera tanto a distribuição paramétrica de variáveis não observadas quanto a distribuição não-paramétrica de variáveis conhecidas. Resultados indicam que o caráter redistributivo do programa possui um impacto eleitoral nos eleitores maior do que os ganhos individuais de renda dos beneficiários. O efeito marginal de ser um beneficiário do programa na decisão de voto é equivalente a um aumento de 81 reais na renda mensal do trabalho, menos do que o valor médio recebido por beneficiário que é de 90 reais. Nosso exercício contrafactual aponta que, sem o programa Bolsa Família, a incumbente, Sra. Rousseff, perderia 5,6% do total de votos, deixando o resultado da eleição inconclusivo. O segundo capítulo estuda a participação feminina na política, que aumentou na última década tanto em países ricos como em desenvolvimento. Não é claro, no entanto, se isso é parte de uma tendência ou apenas um crescimento reversível. A literatura apresenta argumentos teóricos tanto para um efeito de reforço quanto para um negativo da exposição a uma liderança negativa na probabilidade de apoio futuro a uma candidata mulher. Usando dados eleitorais e do Censo para o Brasil, testamos se o efeito da presença de uma prefeita mulher numa cidade impacta o apoio futuro a candidatas mulheres para Deputada Federal e não encontramos evidência de efeito significativo. Além disso, mostramos que apenas o uso de estatísticas agregadas, como médias demográficas, levaria a concluir equivocadamente que eleitores expostos ao governo de uma prefeita mulher teriam uma menor probabilidade de votar numa candidata mulher. O último capítulo investiga os determinantes para a queda de desigualdade de renda entre municípios brasileiros entre 2000 e 2010. Usando dados censitários, mostramos que a desigualdade caiu mais rápido em municípios com um maior nível de desigualdade em 2000 – sugerindo -convergência. Nós então, utilizamos a decomposição dinâmica (Shorrocks, 1982) para identificar a contribuição de mudanças nas condições do mercado de trabalho, como aumento do salário mínimo, formalização e melhoria na educação na convergência de desigualdade regional. Encontramos que a queda na desigualdade de renda no emprego formal foi o principal contribuinte para a redução de desigualdade de renda entre municípios no período. / This thesis contains three chapters. The first chapter studies the relationship between the Brazilian CCT program Bolsa Família and the outcome of the 2010 elections. We seek to estimate this effect using a structural approach, identifying individual characteristics that affect the electoral impact of the program. We do so by using a mixed logit model, a discrete choice model that considers both a parametrical distribution of unobserved variables and a non-parametrical distribution of known variables. Results indicate that the redistributive character of the program has a larger electoral impact on voters than the individual income gains of the beneficiaries. The marginal effect of being a beneficiary of the program on voting decision is equivalent to 81 Reais increase in monthly labor income, less than the average value received by a beneficiary, which is 90 reais. Our counterfactual exercise points that, without Bolsa Família, the incumbent, Mrs. Rousseff, would have lost 5.6% of the votes, making the election results unclear. The second chapter studies female participation in politics has increased in the last decade in both rich and developing countries. It is not clear, however, if this is part of a trend or just a reversible growth. Literature presents theoretical arguments for both a reinforcing force and a negative effect of the exposure to a female leadership on the probability of supporting a future female candidate. Using electoral and Census data for Brazil, we test the effect that the presence of a female mayor in a municipality has on future the support for a female candidate for Federal Deputy and find no evidence of a significant effect. Furthermore, we show that the use of aggregate statistics alone, as demographic averages, would mislead us to conclude that voters exposed to a female mayor have a smaller probability to support a female candidate. The last chapter investigates the determinants of the decline of income inequality across municipalities in Brazil between 2000 and 2010. Using censuses data, we show that inequality fell faster in municipalities with higher inequality levels in 2000 – suggesting - convergence. We, then, employ a dynamic decomposition (Shorrocks, 1982) to assess the contribution of changes in private labor market conditions as the increase in minimum wage, formalization and increase in education levels on the regional inequality convergence. We find that the fall in wage inequality in the private formal sector was the main driver of the reduction in income inequality across municipalities in the period.

Le quota est un instrument juridique courant en droit français. Le législateur en adopte dans différents secteurs, pour poursuivre des objectifs très variés : discrimination positive, protection de l'ordre public, préservation de l'environnement, protection de la santé publique, préservation des ressources halieutiques, contrôle des excédents agricoles. Le quota reste toutefois un instrument très controversé en droit public, notamment parce qu'il semble contrevenir au principe d'égalité. Les quotas féminins et les quotas ultras-marins illustrent de façon saisissante une forme d'allergie du droit français à certains types de quotas, objets de revendications politiques parfois anciennes. À partir des années 1980, les lois instaurant de tels quotas ont systématiquement été jugées inconstitutionnelles. Le Constituant a donc été amené à réviser, à quatre reprises en une seule décennie, la Constitution du 4 octobre 1958, afin d'habiliter le législateur à adopter de tels quotas.Les obstacles constitutionnels une fois levés, on aurait pu s'attendre à une prolifération des quotas naguère impossibles à établir. Mais tel n'a pas été le cas. D'une part parce que, à l'instar des autres quotas, l'adoption de quotas par sexe et ultras-marins relève de la compétence exclusive du législateur. D'autre part parce que, adoptés sur le fondement d'une habilitation constitutionnelle ad hoc, ils dérogent à certains principes constitutionnels, et font l'objet, à ce titre, d'un contrôle juridictionnel étroit. Pourquoi a-t-il fallu réviser la Constitution, qui plus est à quatre reprises, pour adopter des mécanismes si ordinaires du droit français ? Quelle est la portée exacte des nouvelles habilitations à instaurer des quotas ? Les quotas par sexe et ultras-marins sont-ils devenus des quotas comme les autres ? C'est notamment à ces questions que la recherche s'est efforcée de répondre. Elle met ainsi en lumière le rôle central de la figure du juge dans l'appréhension des quotas, et les insuffisances qui entourent encore aujourd'hui leur régime contentieux. / Quota is an usual legal instrument in french law.The legislator adopts quotas in differents sectors, to pursue differents objectives : affirmative action, protection of the public order, environnemetal protection, public health protection, ... . However, quota is, in french public law, a controversial legal instrument, because it seems to be in opposition with the constitutionnal principle of equality.Gender quotas and ultramarine quotas illustrate in a striking manner this allergy of french public law towards quotas. Since the 80's the law wich introduce this type of quotas are systematically be declared inconstitutional.In order to empower the legislator to introduce these quotas, the constituent power has review the french Constitution four times.Since the revisions of the french Constitution these quotas are particularly framed by the judges. In one hand, as the other quotas, gender quotas an ultramrines quotas belong to the competence exclusive of the legislator. In the other hand, them depart from some constitutionnals principles, so they are strictly controled by the judges.Why has it been necessary to review four times the Constitution to introduce these usual legal instruments in french law ? What will be exactly the effect of these new habilitations ? Are Gender quotas and ultramarine quotas became like other quotas ? It is to these questions that the research has attempted to answer. It highlights the central role of the judges and the underdevelopment of their contentious system.

In 1999, France, after a long and dragging debate, revised its Constitution in order to enable the installation of gender quotas in elected political bodies. In 2000 'parity laws' were enacted. They defined the parameters of these quotas that applied strictly to elections of proportional electoral system, such as elections into municipal councils with over 3.500 inhabitants, regional and European elections, and Senate elections in areas with three and more senators. In elections with plurality voting system, such as legislative elections and Senate elections with one or two senators, the parity was supposed to be achieved by imposing of financial penalty for those political parties that would not comply with the parity laws. This diploma thesis describes a public discussion that had taken place in France before the adoption of the gender parity imposed by the law. It compares four major political parties- the Republicans, Socialist party, The Greens and the National Front. The research analyzes their compliance with parity laws and their implementation on their candidate lists in parliamentary as well as Senate elections. The aim of this diploma thesis is to show and compare the rhetoric and the actions of the studied political parties with regards to the parity. The research analyzes the lists of...

Ce manuscrit présente trois chapitres distincts couvrant des sujets liés au fonctionnement et au rôle des conseils d’administration. Le premier chapitre étudie l’effet de la reconnaissance de l’expertise des administrateurs sur les opportunités de croissance de l’entreprise, en utilisant des prix de prestige obtenus par les administrateurs. Les résultats indiquent que la présence d’administrateurs primés dans les conseils d’administration entraîne de meilleures opportunités d’investissement. Le deuxième chapitre analyse l’impact du quota de femmes dans les conseils d’administration en France sur la valeur boursière des entreprises. Avant le quota, les investisseurs réagissent positivement aux annonces de nominations d’administratrices, en particulier pour les conseils d’administration majoritairement masculins. L’annonce de la promulgation de la loi le 27 janvier 2011 est considérée comme une bonne nouvelle sur le marché boursier, ce qui conduit les investisseurs à anticiper les recrutements de femmes résultant du quota. Le troisième chapitre traite de l’impact du quota sur le marché du travail des administrateurs. Les résultats indiquent que le quota a changé les pratiques de recrutement dans les conseils d’administration et que, de ce fait, il a amélioré la stabilité des correspondances entreprise-administrateur. / This dissertation presents three distinct chapters covering topics related to the functioning and the role of corporate boards. The first chapter studies the effect of the recognition of directors’ expertise on growth opportunities through directors’ receipt of prestigious awards. The results show that the presence of award-winners on boards leads to better investment opportunities. The second chapter analyzes the impact of a board gender quota in France on market valuation. Before the quota, investors respond positively to female director nominations, especially on male-dominated boards. The announcement of the enactment of the law on January 27, 2011, was viewed as positive news in the stock market, which leads to the anticipation of post-quota female appointments. The third chapter focuses on the impact of the quota on the labor market for corporate directors. The evidence suggests that, by changing the director search technology used by firms, the French quota has improved the stability of director-firm matches.

The main claim of my thesis is that demand of higher representation of women in politics and calling for quotas are legitimate. This claim is based on theoretical framework of descriptive and group representation. Essentialism is rejected in the line of reasoning in favour of more women in politics. Instead, current disadvantage of women and social and institutional barriers are pointed out. Although there are no common women's interestes, equality issues are predominantly placed on the political agenda by female politicians. Besides gender stereotypes the biggest obstacle for women in politics are their own political parties because they nominate few women and they do not place them at the top of candidate lists. Civic Democratic Party before election to Chamber of Deputies in 2013 was an example of the concept glass cliff when women get to leadership positions in the context of crisis. Quotas are based on mistrust of gradual development. Efficiency of quotas depends on how many political parties use them and in which position in parlament these parties are. The order of candidates on the ballots is also important. Nowadays there is a proposal of legislative quotas which would be obligatory for all political parties.

Denna uppsats behandlar könskvotering till bolagsstyrelser. Sverige har alltjämt motsatt sig kvotering som ett medel för att nå en jämnare könsfördelning. Trots redovisade fördelar, främst avseende bolagens ekonomiska effektivitet, har reglerna ansetts inskränka aktieägarnas äganderätt att fritt utse styrelseledamöter. Utifrån egendomsskyddet i RF kan däremot konstateras att det inte rör sig om en otillåten inskränkning av äganderätten. Inom ramen för Europeiska unionens samarbete beslutades nyligen om ett direktiv som ska främja en jämnare könsfördelning bland styrelseledamöter i börsnoterade bolag. I egenskap av medlemsstat förväntas Sverige implementera direktivet och uppfylla de fastställda kvoterna. Det är därför av intresse att analysera direktivets utformning, innehåll och ändamålsenlighet. Direktivet uppvisar flertalet brister. Det gäller såväl direktivets materiella innehåll som dess förenlighet med subsidiaritets-och proportionalitetsprincipen. Vidare kan riktas kritik mot den rättsliga grund som direktivet vilar på. Till fördel för direktivet är den undantagsbestämmelse som Sverige bland andra länder har möjlighet att tillämpa, och som medför att direktivet i praktiken inte kommer få någon större effekt för svenska börsbolag.