Does Female Suffrage Increase Public Support for Government Spending? Evidence from Swiss Ballots

Abstract

Meltzer and Richard (1981) famously hypothesized that enfranchising new constituents such that the new median voter is poorer than before, increases the demand for redistribution and state expenditure. Consequently, one would expect that extending the suffrage to women should increase the approval for government spending. By utilizing a natural experiment from Switzerland, we test this hypothesis empirically. We analyze the voting outcomes of two very similar referendum ballots concerning the federal government's competency to levy income, capital and turnover taxes. The first ballot has taken place shortly before the extension of suffrage to women in February 1971, and the other thereafter. To shed light on gender differences in approval for government spending, we first estimate the additional turnout due to the introduction of female suffrage. Then we estimates the additional turnout's impact on the percentage of yes votes. Our results suggest that introducing female suffrage has increased the approval rate concerning state expenditure.

Additionally, we provide evidence from a grouped logit analysis of the ballots for the socioeconomic variables that play a role in the support for government expenditure. Our results add to the findings of other literature that a causal relationship between female suffrage and the approval for government expenditure exists.

Keywords: Female suffrage, Preferences, Gender, Voting, Direct democracy

JEL Classification: H10, J16