Electing women does not reduce corruption: Evidence from Brazil
Source: CEPR
As women gain political ground around the world, there is hope that the election of more women might also mean cleaner government. But is this the case? This column examines thousands of close mixed-gender elections in Brazil across two decades and finds that electing a woman mayor neither increases nor reduces corruption. Instead, incumbents are consistently more corrupt across various metrics. Women continue to face substantial barriers on the path to office and dismantling these remains a fundamental democratic objective, but on the grounds of equity in representation, not because it will reduce corruption.
Corruption undermines public trust, distorts how governments spend, and weakens state capacity. As women have gained political ground around the world, a hopeful idea has taken hold: that electing more women might also mean cleaner government. But is it true?
This belief rests on a substantial body of correlational evidence: across and within countries, greater female representation has been associated with lower corruption (Dollar et al. 2001, Swamy et al. 2001, Jha and Sarangi 2018, Bauhr et al. 2019, Decarolis et al. 2023). These correlations are, however, hard to interpret causally: the women who reach office may differ systematically from male politicians, for instance in their political orientation or experience, and the places that elect them may differ too. More broadly, the evidence on whether female politicians govern differently is mixed (Hessami and Lopes da Fonseca 2020): electing more women does not necessarily translate into different policies (Campa and Bagues 2017, Carrer and De Masi 2026).
As women gain political ground around the world, there is hope that the election of more women might also mean cleaner government. But is this the case? This column examines thousands of close mixed-gender elections in Brazil across two decades and finds that electing a woman mayor neither increases nor reduces corruption. Instead, incumbents are consistently more corrupt across various metrics. Women continue to face substantial barriers on the path to office and dismantling these remains a fundamental democratic objective, but on the grounds of equity in representation, not because it will reduce corruption.
Corruption undermines public trust, distorts how governments spend, and weakens state capacity. As women have gained political ground around the world, a hopeful idea has taken hold: that electing more women might also mean cleaner government. But is it true?
This belief rests on a substantial body of correlational evidence: across and within countries, greater female representation has been associated with lower corruption (Dollar et al. 2001, Swamy et al. 2001, Jha and Sarangi 2018, Bauhr et al. 2019, Decarolis et al. 2023). These correlations are, however, hard to interpret causally: the women who reach office may differ systematically from male politicians, for instance in their political orientation or experience, and the places that elect them may differ too. More broadly, the evidence on whether female politicians govern differently is mixed (Hessami and Lopes da Fonseca 2020): electing more women does not necessarily translate into different policies (Campa and Bagues 2017, Carrer and De Masi 2026).