Max-Emil Mohn King
Dept. of Economics, BI Norwegian Business School, 0442 Oslo, Norway
email: max-emil.m.king@bi.no, tel: (+47) 46488167
Research
Child Penalties in Politics with J. H. Fiva (conditionally accepted by Economic Journal) 🔗
Women tend to experience a substantial decline in their labour income after their first child is born, while men do not. Do such 'child penalties' also exist in the political arena? Using comprehensive administrative data from Norway, we find that women are less likely than men to secure elected office after their first child is born. The effects manifest already from the nomination stage, where mothers receive less favourable rankings on party lists relative to comparable fathers. This paper broadens our understanding of a fundamental social issue in political representation and demonstrates how motherhood affects even positively selected women.
Bound by Borders: Voter Mobilization Through Social Networks with G. W. Cox & J. H. Fiva 🔗
Unlike previous studies of mobilization through social networks, we measure the drop-off in mobilizational impulses as they cross electoral district boundaries. Our analysis exploits individual-level panel data on the geographical location of voters and candidates in Norway. Considering three types of social network—families, co-workers, and immigrant communities—we show that a group member’s candidacy sends a mobilizational impulse through the group’s network. However, the impulse falls off dramatically as soon as the network crosses the candidate’s district boundary. Our paper is the first we know that quantitatively assesses border effects, which have often been noted informally in the literature.