Gender quota in the civil service and female participation: Evidence from Nepal.

Female quotas for high‐ranking positions in corporations and governments should (i) increase the hiring of women and (ii) inspire more women to apply for these positions. The goal will be that eventually, (iii) even without the quota, more women will apply to and succeed in high‐ranked positions. This paper exploits the variations of female quotas in Nepalese civil service exams across years, services, ranks and exams within the same service to investigate these three effects. Empirical results show that female quotas in a given exam increase applications and the hiring of women. Even in exams without a quota, the female quotas of other exams within the same service increase the number of female applicants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]