Gender and Corruption: A Panel Data Analysis

Abstract

International comparisons have shown that countries with higher rates of female participation in government also have lower levels of corruption. A cross-sectional analysis of the U.S. states finds a similar result. This result may be due to omitted variable bias - an unobserved characteristic is correlated to both corruption and the level of women in government. We use a panel of U.S. states over time and add fixed effects to control for these unobservables and find no significant relationship between women and government corruption.

Keywords: Women, corruption

JEL Classification: H11, H73, Z00