Zusammenfassung:
We link a new database of politically exposed persons with the complete register of firms established in Mozambique since Independence. Focusing on the network of connections between firm owners, we use a generalized event study analysis to show that holders of political office achieve significant gains in the number of companies owned and their structural power (centrality) within the business-owner network. These gains are concentrated in joint-stock firms active in provision of business services, and our results persist when we aggregate the data to the family-level. This pattern suggests politicians accumulate private sector wealth by acting as rentier-brokers.