The role of gender in environmental policy : female political representation and government environmental protection expenditure in the EU

Sammanfattning

Environmental protection is an important policy area for many countries, but countries vary considerably in the amount allocated towards this. The study aims to explain this variation and does so by looking at how female representation in national parliaments influences government environmental protection expenditure in EU member states. It draws on two alternate theories, the median voter theorem and the citizen candidate model, to construct a hypothesis of how differences in preferences of men and women could translate into spending. The hypothesis is that increased female representation translates into increased spending since women, on average, are more environmentally concerned. The study utilises panel data for EU countries for 2004- 2023, and uses a two-way fixed effects model with stepwise introduction of controls. With this setup and controls for ideology, national wealth, higher education, and fossil dependency, no statistically significant results are found. While the study finds no empirical support for the hypothesis, it contributes to the literature by focusing on environmental spending – an underexplored dimension in female representation studies. The results may help refine how the policy impact of gender representation is understood in future research.