The Role of Women in Local Governments
An Analysis of Efficiency in Spain
Ana-María Ríos (University of Murcia), María-Dolores Guillamón (University of Murcia), & Beatriz Cuadrado-Ballesteros (University of Salamanca
In recent years, the reduction of available resources, increased debt and the decentralisation of services have placed many governments in precarious situations. If we focus on the local public sector, municipalities are increasingly challenged to present balanced budgets without raising taxes or reducing vital services for their citizens (Guerrini et al. 2017). Thus, it is essential for local governments (LGs) to provide their services in the most efficient way, which would allow them to provide more services with fewer resources or the same services at a lower cost (Guerrini et al. 2017).
The term “efficiency” refers to the level of performance of an organization (Farrell 1957). It represents the level of output that can be obtained by a level of input, in comparison with the optimal combination input-output. The term optimal refers to the maximum output obtained with a given input; or the minimum input required to produce a given output (Greene 1993). Adapting this definition to LGs, output represents public services and input refers to financial resources that governments use to provide such public services. This study uses a set of input and output indicators that have been extensively used in literature to represent the efficiency of LGs (Narbón-Perpiñá and De Witte 2018a). Concretely, current expenditure is used as input, while outputs represent a wide set of public services that Spanish LGs have to provide by law (lighting, waste collection and treatment, street cleaning, drinking water supply, sewer systems and drains, paving and accesses to the municipality, parks and green areas, public libraries, police and protection services, social services, sports facilities, public transport, and environmental protection services), according to Buch-Gómez and Cabaleiro-Casal (2020). As outputs (public services) are established by law, LGs should be focused on minimising the cost of providing such public services (input). Then, this study refers to the concept of municipal cost efficiency.
To date, the literature on efficiency has focussed on analysing how to measure this concept as well as its determinants (Narbón-Perpiñá and De Witte 2018a; 2018b). Focusing on the determinants, literature has considered numerous socio-demographic, economic, political, financial, geographical and institutional factors. However, even though there are some empirical studies that have attempted to analyse the role of female representation in public finances and public policies (Hessami and da Fonseca 2020), we hardly found any studies that focussed on the role of women in municipal cost efficiency.
Following the social role theory and the critical mass theory, we empirically test the link between women’s participation in municipal councils (as a mayor or as a councillor) and the level of efficiency in the provision of public services at the local level. For that, we use a sample consisting of 141 Spanish municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants for the period 2014-2018. The empirical findings suggest that there is a positive association between the presence of women in municipal councils and efficiency in providing public services. According to the social role theory, women are educated as caregivers (Eagly and Johannesen-Schmidt 2001) and so they have some personal characteristics and abilities that lead them to manage according to principles of efficiency, effectiveness, and expertise (Andreoni and Vesterlund 2001; Hamidullah et al. 2015). All these personal characteristics lead governments to behave more responsibly, which may result in higher levels of performance (Park 2020).
However, our findings shows that such positive association appear only if the number of female councillors is relatively high; if this is not the case, the interests and opinions of the few women could be overshadowed by their male counterparts, who have different opinions according to the social role theory. More concretely, the results suggest that LGs need a minimum percentage of 34.43% of women to start to increase the efficiency. This non-linear relationship is according to the critical mass theory, which suggests that any minority group can influence the rest of the group when there is a tilted (20-40% minority) or balanced (40-60% minority) ratio. Public administrations, like LGs, have been historically male-dominated organisations with men controlling the power and the most highly valued jobs (Mastracci and Bowman 2015). So, women should ensure their power (at least in numbers) to make themselves heard, growing from a few token individuals into a considerable minority (Dahlerup 1988); if not, the voice of female members could be drowned out by their male counterparts. Thus, we consider that gender quotas are essential. We are not talking about a specific number or proportion; something more is needed, like specifications of quota provisions that match the electoral system in question, rules about the order of candidates on electoral lists, and sanctions for not complying with quota provisions (Dahlerup 2008). Otherwise, gender quotas will be merely symbolic.
Another lesson that arises from our findings is that female mayors do not behave as it is expected according to the social role theory. In fact, the variable that represents female mayors suggests the contrary effect, that is, a negative link between efficiency and the female mayors. This result may suggest that a mayor’s decision-making is conditioned by other factors besides gender, such as political ideology and the strength of the government. On hardest branch of the critical mass theory suggest that the authority of women can be affected by formal rules and informal norms (Karpowitz et al. 2015), which lead them to behave as we can expect for men.
Read the full UAR article here.
-
Andreoni, James, and Lise Vesterlund. 2001. “Which is the fair sex? Gender differences in altruism.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 116(1): 293-312.
Buch-Gómez, Enrique J., and Roberto Cabaleiro-Casal. 2020. “Turnout, Political Strength, and Cost Efficiency in Spanish Municipalities of the Autonomous Region of Galicia: Evidence from an Alternative Stochastic Frontier Approach”. Papers in Regional Science: The Journal of the Regional Science Association International 99 (3): 533–53.
Dahlerup, Drude. 1988. “From a Small to a Large Minority: Women in Scandinavian Politics”. Scandinavian Political Studies 11 (4): 275–98. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9477.1988.tb00372.x.
Dahlerup, Drude. 2008. “Gender quotas–controversial but trendy: On expanding the research agenda.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 10(3): 322-328.
Eagly, Alice H., and Mary C. Johannesen‐Schmidt. 2001. “The Leadership Styles of Women and Men”. Journal of Social Issues 57(4): 781- 797.
Farrell, M. J. 1957. “The Measurement of Productive Efficiency”. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 120 (3): 253.
Greene, William H. 2008. “The econometric approach to efficiency analysis”. In The measurement of productive efficiency and productivity growth, edited by Harold O. Fried, C. A. Knox Lovell, & Shelton S. Schmidt, 92–250. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Guerrini, Andrea, Pedro Carvalho, Giulia Romano, Rui Cunha Marques, and Chiara Leardini. 2017. “Assessing Efficiency Drivers in Municipal Solid Waste Collection Services through a Non-Parametric Method”. Journal of Cleaner Production 147: 431–41.
Hamidullah, Madinah F., Norma M. Riccucci, and Sanjay K. Pandey. 2015. “Women in City Hall: Gender Dimensions of Managerial Values”. American Review of Public Administration 45 (3): 247–62.
Hessami, Zohal, and Mariana Lopes da Fonseca. 2020. “Female Political Representation and Substantive Effects on Policies: A Literature Review”. European Journal of Political Economy 63 (101896): 101896.
Karpowitz, Christopher F., Tali Mendelberg, and Lauren Mattioli. 2015. “Why Women”s Numbers Elevate Women”s Influence, and When They Do Not: Rules, Norms, and Authority in Political Discussion”. Politics, Groups & Identities 3 (1): 149–77.
Mastracci, Sharon, and Lauren Bowman. 2015. “Public Agencies, Gendered Organizations: The Future of Gender Studies in Public Management”. Public Management Review 17 (6): 857–75.
Narbón-Perpiñá, Isabel, and Kristof De Witte. 2018a. “Local Governments” Efficiency: A Systematic Literature Review—Part I”. International Transactions in Operational Research: A Journal of The International Federation of Operational Research Societies 25 (2): 431–68.
Narbón-Perpiñá, Isabel, and Kristof De Witte. 2018b. “Local Governments” Efficiency: A Systematic Literature Review-Part II”. International Transactions in Operational Research: A Journal of The International Federation of Operational Research Societies 25 (4): 1107–36.
Park, Sanghee. 2020. “Gender and Performance in Public Organizations: A Research Synthesis and Research Agenda”. Public Management Review, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2020.1730940.
Ana-María Ríos is an Associate Professor in Public Sector Economic at the University of Murcia. Her main lines of research are related to budget transparency, citizen participation and financial management. Her work has been published in relevant international journals, such as the Public Management Review, Government Information Quarterly or Local Government Studies. She has attended to several international as well as she was visiting researcher in Edinburgh University Business School and University of Valencia.
María-Dolores Guillamón is Associate Professor in Accounting and Finance at the University of Murcia. Her research interests focus on public sector management, budget transparency or electoral cycles. Her work has been published in relevant international journals, such as the Government Information Quarterly, Cities or Local Government Studies. She has attended to international conferences in accounting and public sector, as well as she was visiting researcher in Edinburgh University Business School and Autonomous University of Hidalgo.
Beatriz Cuadrado-Ballesteros is an Associate Professor in Accounting and Finance at the University of Salamanca. Her research interests are public management and public sector reforms. Her studies have been published in international journals, such as the Public Management Review, Regional Studies, Policy & Politics, and Government Information Quarterly, among others. She has attended several international conferences, as well as she was visiting researcher at the Edinburgh University Business School and the University of Salerno.