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Do women state legislators and administrators make any difference in preventing natural disaster mortality? Evidence from India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2024

Joyita Roy Chowdhury Open the ORCID record for Joyita Roy Chowdhury [Opens in a new window] ,
Yashobanta Parida Open the ORCID record for Yashobanta Parida [Opens in a new window]  and
Prakash Kumar Sahoo
Joyita Roy Chowdhury*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, FLAME University, Pune, India
Yashobanta Parida
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, FLAME University, Pune, India
Prakash Kumar Sahoo
Affiliation:
P.G. Department of Economics, Government College, Sundargarh, Odisha, India
*
*Corresponding author: Joyita Roy Chowdhury; E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
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Abstract

We investigate the effect of women's political representation in the state legislative assembly and public administration on natural disaster mortality in 20 Indian states from 1981 to 2019. The paper combines two critical dimensions: political and administrative representation of women and disaster risk reduction. Results suggest that women's political representation reduces total disaster mortality after controlling socioeconomic and political covariates; however, the effects are statistically insignificant for the current and lag periods. We find that a one standard deviation increase in women's representation in public administration lowers total disaster mortality by 20.6 percentage points, which is 9.8 per cent of the sample mean. We observe the impacts of female administrative representation on gender-specific human development outcomes through reduced male and female disaster mortality, and we explain some mechanisms. Thus, women's political and administrative representation is crucial for addressing disaster mortality as it has major public health consequences.

Keywords

genderpolitical representationpublic administrationnatural disaster mortalitytwo-way fixed effects
Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 29 , Issue 6 , December 2024 , pp. 457 - 478
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press

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