The Impact of Political Leaders' Profession and Education on Reforms

Axel Dreher, Michael Lamla, Sarah M. Rupprecht and Frank Somogyi ()
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Sarah Marit Lein

No 06-147, KOF Working papers from KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich

Abstract: This paper analyzes whether the educational and professional background of a head of government matters for the implementation of market-liberalizing reforms. Employing panel data over the period 1970-2002, we present empirical evidence based on a novel data set covering profession and education of more than 500 political leaders from 73 countries. Our results show that entrepreneurs, professional scientists, and trained economists are significantly more reform oriented. Contrary, union executives tend to impede reforms. We also highlight interactions between profession and education with time in office and the political leaning of the ruling party.

Keywords: Reforms; Economic Policy; Economic Freedom; Interest Groups; Lobbying (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2006-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-hrm, nep-mac, nep-pbe and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

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http://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-005277685 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The impact of political leaders' profession and education on reforms (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kof:wpskof:06-147

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