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Gender Aspects of Government Auditing

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Gender and Corruption

Part of the book series: Political Corruption and Governance ((PCG))

Abstract

In this chapter, we examine to what extent government auditing agencies mediates the effect from proportions of women in parliament on national levels of corruption; thus, we test, using a cross-country comparative design, whether higher proportions of women are associated with well-functioning auditing agencies, which further down the road is associated with lower levels of corruption. A related question is whether women in national parliaments have extra incentives to push for a state on track. One such incentive may be that those areas affecting the everyday lives of women citizens are particularly vulnerable when monitoring of the state is weak. The results suggest that initial relationships between the proportion of women in parliament and levels of corruption become insignificant when mediating variables are introduced.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In technical terms, the basic case of analysis of mediation entails a single intervening variable (Z) linking the focal independent variable (X) to the focal dependent variable (Y). This basic model of mediation can be operationalized with three regression equations: First, regressing Y on X gives the total effect of the focal independent variable X on the focal dependent variable Y, captured by the regression coefficient β1. Second, Z (the mediating variable) is regressed on X, providing the estimate of β2, which is the direct effect of X on Z. Last, Z is added to the first model, providing an estimate of the effect of Z on Y (β3), while X is held constant, as well as an estimate of the direct effect of X on Y (β4), with Z held constant. The magnitude of the effect mediated by Z in this example is given by the difference between β1 in the first model and β4 in the last model (β1 – β4). The three models can be written as (1) Y = α + β1X + ε, (2) Z = α + β2X + ε, (3) Y = α + β3Z + β4X + ε.

  2. 2.

    Dividing the total indirect effect by the total effect gives 0.013/0.017 = 0.76 or 76%.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Mattias Agerberg, Maria Gustavson, Aksel Sundström & Lena Wängnerud

Authors
  1. Mattias Agerberg
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  2. Maria Gustavson
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  3. Aksel Sundström
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  4. Lena Wängnerud
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Helena Stensöta

  2. University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Lena Wängnerud

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Agerberg, M., Gustavson, M., Sundström, A., Wängnerud, L. (2018). Gender Aspects of Government Auditing. In: Stensöta, H., Wängnerud, L. (eds) Gender and Corruption. Political Corruption and Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70929-1_11

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