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Legislative Quotas and the Gender Gap in Campaign Finance: The Case of the 2014 and 2018 Legislative Elections in Colombia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2023

Bart Maddens Open the ORCID record for Bart Maddens [Opens in a new window] ,
Gertjan Muyters Open the ORCID record for Gertjan Muyters [Opens in a new window]  and
Gert-Jan Put Open the ORCID record for Gert-Jan Put [Opens in a new window]
Bart Maddens
Affiliation:
Bart Maddens is a professor of political science at Public Governance Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. bart.maddens@kuleuven.be.
Gertjan Muyters
Affiliation:
Gertjan Muyters is a postdoctoral researcher at Public Governance Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. gertjan.muyters@kuleuven.be.
Gert-Jan Put
Affiliation:
Gert-Jan Put is the research manager of the KU Leuven Urban Studies Institute at the Department of Political, Social and Communication Sciences, Université de Namur, Namur, Belgium. gertjan.put@kuleuven.be.
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Abstract

Earlier empirical research on party list proportional representation systems shows that women spend less on campaigns than men, particularly when quotas are applied. An analysis of the candidate campaign expenses for the 2014 and 2018 Colombian Lower Chamber elections provides a novel test of this gender gap and its underlying causes. The research design leverages Colombia’s unique context of electoral institutions, with interdistrict variation in terms of quota rules, and the availability of detailed information on campaign spending and funding. The regression models show that the gender gap in campaign spending is limited to districts with quota rules and disappears among incumbents and candidates listed first on the ballot. As for funding, women candidates are most disadvantaged with regard to personal funds and corporate donations but attract as many individual donations as men do.

Keywords

Campaign financeColombiagender quotasrepresentation of women
Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , May 2023 , pp. 83 - 109
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the University of Miami

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Footnotes

All at the Public Governance Institute, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.

Conflicts of interest: Authors Bart Maddens, Gertjan Muyters, and Gert-Jan Put declare none.

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