Institutionalized authority and personal traits of executive heads in international organizations: A new database

Tomoko Takahashi, Sanae Suzuki and Taku Yukawa

International Interactions, 2025, vol. 51, issue 5, 879-900

Abstract: The important role played by executive heads (EHs) in international organizations (IOs) has garnered significant attention and empirical EH research has advanced with individual cases of prominent heads. However, it lacks quantitative analyses of EHs’ role in IOs. The main reason is the absence of comprehensive cross-IO data on EHs. This study introduces a new database comprising two datasets on the EHs who served in 18 multi-issue international organizations from 1980 to 2020. The first dataset focuses on institutionalized authority by identifying and collecting data on the authority and discretion conferred on EHs as individuals. The second includes the personal traits and biographical information of EHs, drawing on the Personal Biography Approach (PBA). This database enables cross-IO, quantitative empirical research on EHs that accounts not only for their institutional authority but also for individual-level attributes. In addition to their descriptive statistics, an illustrative analysis was performed to quantitatively examine how variables associated with EHs influence the adoption of liberal norms within international organizations. It demonstrates that this database is expected to significantly advance quantitative research on EHs in the future.

Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:ginixx:v:51:y:2025:i:5:p:879-900

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DOI: 10.1080/03050629.2025.2527826

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