The impact of female mayors on liveability and urban development in the Italian municipalities context: a push for equality

Does the volume and nature of governmental expenditures and revenues vary depending on the mayor's gender? According to the modern literature concerning gender gap, there is no significant differences in policies implemented in municipalities headed by male and female mayors. I adopt a standard sharp regression discontinuity design to estimate the causal impact of gender on local public investments within the period 2014-2017. I choose the female margin of victory in Italian municipal elections as the forcing variable, with respect only to elections with mixed gender candidates. Consequently, a positive margin of victory indicates that the female candidate received more votes, as is customary in analysis of close elections. This master thesis is focus on the expenditure per municipality; I consider both social and urban investment to estimate more precisely the effect of having a female mayor on the social and urban level of investment. The house price index growth rate is also included within the analysis, and it serves as a proxy for measure the level of liveability per municipality. The main idea behind this choice is that it may reflects intertemporal local urban and social development. I investigate therefore whether the outcome conceals gender disparity in the makeup of the municipal council and the members of the executive committee chosen by the mayor. From the past literature, there is some evidence that female mayors spend less on urban development and infrastructure and more on social and welfare policies. I find some similar results, also taking into consideration outcomes at the macro-regional level. The results provide little evidence for alternative interpretations.