Are women more likely to throw the rascals out? The mobilizing effect of social service spending on female voters

This study focuses on gender differences in voter reactions to a corruption scandal in one’s preferred party. We analyze, in a framework of ‘exit, voice and loyalty’, whether women differ from men in terms of turnout (exit), and given that they vote, whether they prefer a clean alternative party (vo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public choice 2020-09, Vol.184 (3/4), p.235-261
Main Authors: Alexander, Amy C., Bågenholm, Andreas, Charron, Nicholas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accountability
Corruption
Data quality
Economics
Economics and Finance
Expenditures
Females
Gender differences
Loyalty
Mobilization
Political Science
Public Finance
Respondents
Scandals
Social services
SYMPOSIUM ON LEGAL CORRUPTION / EDITED BY OGUZHAN DINCER AND MICHAEL JOHNSTON
Voter behavior
Voters
Voting
Women
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Summary:This study focuses on gender differences in voter reactions to a corruption scandal in one’s preferred party. We analyze, in a framework of ‘exit, voice and loyalty’, whether women differ from men in terms of turnout (exit), and given that they vote, whether they prefer a clean alternative party (voice) or whether they continue to vote for their preferred party (loyalty) involved in a corruption scandal. We employ sequential logit models using data from the European Quality of Government Index (EQI) survey from 2017, which contains roughly 77,000 respondents from 21 EU countries and 185 regions. We find that women generally are less tolerant of corruption, but that the effect is highly conditional. In areas where social service spending is more widespread, we find that female respondents are more likely to vote for an alternative party. Yet the odds of exit increase among women when social service spending is lower.
ISSN:0048-5829
1573-7101
DOI:10.1007/s11127-019-00761-w