Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/90024 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7780
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper investigates the impact of political leaders' migration experience on the quality of their leadership. We build up an original database on the personal background of 932 politicians who were at the head of the executive power in a developing country over the 1960-2004 period. We put forward a positive effect of the leader having studied abroad on the level of democracy in his country during his tenure. This effect is shown to be independent from the leader's education level, as well as from his profession. Moreover, it is mainly driven by countries with a poor initial level of democracy. These results are confirmed by various robustness tests. They propose a new channel through which migration may affect politics in the sending countries, namely the emergence of the elites.
Subjects: 
political leaders
migration
democracy
developing countries
JEL: 
O11
E02
F22
N40
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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