Selecting finance ministers: Key characteristics shaping government Debt in Africa

Christine Olivia Strong

International Review of Economics & Finance, 2024, vol. 93, issue PA, 736-757

Abstract: Analyzing data spanning 1980 to 2020 across 23 African nations, we investigate the influence of finance ministers' personal characteristics on debt-to-GDP ratios. Our study identifies specific traits that significantly impact their performance. Notably, we find that the tenure, gender, and education of African finance ministers all play crucial roles in determining public debt outcomes. Interestingly, longer tenures correlate with weaker abilities to influence government debt, while female finance ministers are associated with lower debt-to-GDP ratios compared to their male counterparts. These findings remain robust even after accounting for key determinants like institutional quality and personal characteristics of heads of state. Importantly, the results persist irrespective of finance ministers' foreign education or potential motivations related to personal gains or the revolving door hypothesis.

Keywords: Finance ministers; Debt; Tenure; Female; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C01 E02 E62 H63 O11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056024002016
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reveco:v:93:y:2024:i:pa:p:736-757

DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2024.03.034

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Economics & Finance is currently edited by H. Beladi and C. Chen

More articles in International Review of Economics & Finance from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().