Mayor’s Gender Dissimilarity and Inefficiency in Social Welfare Services: Evidence from Spanish Municipalities

The few studies that have analyzed the effect of mayors’ female gender on the economic inefficiency of municipal social welfare services have not yielded conclusive results. Because this effect might not be clearly visible if the gender contrast with the governing team is not taken into account, our aim was to test whether the mayor’s gender dissimilarity from the government team, using a binary perspective, influences the inefficiency of these services. Our research took into account the heterogeneity caused by the mayor’s own gender and the governing team’s ideology. Results from Spanish municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants show that mayors’ gender dissimilarity reduces inefficiency in the provision of these services in municipalities with right-wing governments. Furthermore, female mayors generally reduce inefficiency, but this effect is the opposite when they are in highly masculinized government teams, a phenomenon that is especially relevant in municipalities with right-wing governments.