Male officials’ response to gender-based affirmative action: evidence from local government debt

Using data on local officials and local government debt (LGD) in Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2006 to 2012, this article examines the effect of gender-based affirmative action (AA) for female officials on the behaviours of their male counterparts. We find that female officials have a promotion advantage under China’s gender-based AA policies. Using the provincial share of female municipal party secretaries as a proxy for the intensity of gender-based AA, we find that gender-based AA is associated with higher LGD in male-led cities. This effect is stronger where male officials face greater promotion incentives and where female officials have higher educational attainment. We also find that this effect is more pronounced among cities led by male officials with higher competence. In addition, gender-based AA is associated with higher infrastructure investment in male-led cities. The findings suggest that, under China’s tournament-style promotion system, gender-based AA raises promotion pressure on male officials and stimulates more proactive political competition among non-beneficiaries.