The political participation of women in sectional governments: the provincial prefects in Ecuador 1979-2019

Abstract

This paper proposes that quota laws, meant to increase the raise the number of women elected in plurinominal elections, produce a market failure known as a positive externality on the women candidates in uninominal elections. Grounded in an original, unpublished database of provincial prefects in Ecuador (1979-2019), and using logistic regression models, we verify the proposed hypothesis empirically. In addition, we show that the likelihood of electing female prefects under these laws is higher in rural areas.