Does women's political empowerment promote access to drinking water in developing countries? Effects and transmission channels

The link between women's political empowerment and access to safe drinking water remains largely unexplored, particularly in the context of developing countries. Furthermore, existing literature often overlooks the channels through which women's political empowerment influences access to safe drinking water, limiting the overall understanding of this relationship. This study makes a significant contribution to the literature by examining the effect of women's political empowerment on access to safe drinking water. Using a panel of 65 developing countries over the period 2000–2022, we employ a two-stage system GMM method to analyse this dynamic. The results show that women's political empowerment does not have a significant direct effect on access to safe drinking water. However, using a structural equation mediation approach, we find that women's political empowerment improves access to safe drinking water through two channels: political stability and the absence of violence, and sanitation. JEL Classification O15, O17, J16, Q25, D72