The Effect of Female Leadership on Contracting from Capitol Hill to Main Street
80 Pages Posted: 25 Jun 2020 Last revised: 16 Feb 2024
Date Written: April 5, 2022
Abstract
This paper provides novel evidence that female politicians increase the proportion of US government procurement contracts allocated to women-owned firms. For identification, we use a regression discontinuity design on a sample of mixed-gender elections in the US House of Representatives. The effect grows over a female representative’s tenure and concentrates in female representatives who are on powerful congressional committees. Changes in the pool of and behavior by government contractors cannot explain the result. The more gender-balanced representation in government contracting is not associated with economic costs.
Keywords: Small Business, Women-Owned Firms, Government Procurement Contracts, Female Politicians, Gender Gap
JEL Classification: D72, J16, J71, G38, H57, L26
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