Men and women candidates are similarly persistent after losing elections

Abstract

Are women more likely to quit politics after losing their first race than men? Women’s first-time candidacies skyrocketed in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. Yet we have little sense of the long-term impact of this surge in women candidates on women’s representation writ large: Inexperienced candidates are more likely to lose, and women might be especially discouraged by a loss. This might make the benefits of such a surge in candidacies fleeting. Using a regression discontinuity design and data that feature 212,805 candidates across 22,473 jurisdictions between 1950 and 2018, we find that women who narrowly lose these elections are no more likely to quit politics than men who narrowly lose. Drawing on scholarship on women’s lower political ambition, we interpret these findings to mean that women’s decision-making differs from men’s at the point of entry into politics—not at the point of reentry.

Effects of an electronic health record‐based mobility assessment and automated referral for inpatient physical therapy on patient outcomes: A quasi‐experimental study

“…37,38 Patients with EHR-PT referrals received more PT services which could have two effects: increased LOS because more care was required and decreased LOS because patients with stroke can regain function with early rehabilitation. 35,39 These two effects may balance out and appear to have no effect on LOS. Future work to explain if the EHR tool has an impact on LOS should consider these variables, examine the effect of EHR-PT referrals on time-toevaluation, and analyses that stratified by stroke-specific severity levels such as the NIH Stroke Scale 40,41 and frailty measures like the Physical Frailty Phenotype.…”

“…Our model did not account for variables that may drive increased LOS (i.e., lacking family support, 36 unavailable PACF beds, and delays in insurance authorizations), especially since 50% of patients after a stroke are discharged to inpatient rehabilitation facilities 37,38 . Patients with EHR‐PT referrals received more PT services which could have two effects: increased LOS because more care was required and decreased LOS because patients with stroke can regain function with early rehabilitation 35,39 . These two effects may balance out and appear to have no effect on LOS.…”

Is Incumbency Advantage Gendered?

“…12. Other research suggests that women losers are just as persistent as men losers (Bernhard and Benedictis-Kessner 2021).…”

The gender recontest gap in elections

“…She finds that women are less likely to re-run for political offices after electoral setbacks than men. In contrast, Bernhard and de Benedictis-Kessner (2021) show that female and male candidates do not differ in their likelihood to recontest in US local and state races after close electoral defeats. Bhalotra, Clots-Figueras and Iyer (2018) show that women are more likely than men to continue in politics after electoral victories.…”

“…Previous literature studies various explanations: anti-female biases harbored by parties and voters, a limited supply of women willing to run in elections, and incumbency advantages traditionally held by men (Fox and Lawless, 2014;Casas-Arce and Saiz, 2015;Baskaran and Hessami, 2018;Gonzalez-Eiras and Sanz, 2021;Brown et al, 2019;Lippmann, 2019). In contrast, only few studies explore whether men and women, once they have entered politics, differ in their propensity to persist (Bernhard and de Benedictis-Kessner, 2021;Shair-Rosenfield and Hinojosa, 2014) and why gender gaps in political persistence might emerge (Wasserman, 2021;Bhalotra, Clots-Figueras and Iyer, 2018;Brown et al, 2019). It will be difficult to achieve an enduring increase in female representation if women who have shown some initial political ambition, e. g. by contesting an election for an important office, subsequently quit politics at a higher rate than men.…”