Future Welfare Gains: The Engagement of Adolescent Girls in Politics

This paper investigates the effect of empowered women (role model) on the political engagement of adolescent girls. This engagement depends on adolescent behavior, which is guided by the electoral result achieved by women who... [ view full abstract ]

This paper investigates the effect of empowered women (role model) on the political engagement of adolescent girls. This engagement depends on adolescent behavior, which is guided by the electoral result achieved by women who are role models. The defeat/victory of role-model women by/over men changes the behavior of adolescent girls because it provokes in them a state of electoral disappointment/euphoria. As a result of this change, we have fewer/more registrations to vote in the next election. We use elements of the prospect theory and close elections (an RD estimate) to sustain our development. The influence of empowered women on the political engagement of adolescents is tiny, given that we find by way of a quasi-experiment that the difference between the increase and reduction in adolescent registrations to vote when women are elected/defeated is 1.0-1.6 p.p. Unlike the literature, our measure of engagement in politics is not generated from a survey (a measure of the perception of the aspirations of adolescents) but from the non-compulsory registration of adolescents in the 16-17 age-band for voting in Brazil.