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The Return of the Prodigy Son: Do Return Migrants Make Better Leaders?

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  • Marion Mercier

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of political leaders’ migration experience on the quality of their leadership. A database is constructed 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. A positive effect of the leader having studied abroad on the level of democracy in his country during his tenure is put forwarded. 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. [IZA Discussion Paper No. 7780]

Suggested Citation

  • Marion Mercier, 2013. "The Return of the Prodigy Son: Do Return Migrants Make Better Leaders?," Working Papers id:5611, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:5611
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    migrants; profession; migration; politics; leadership; politicians; leader; developing countries; Asia; Africa; Iraq;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • E02 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Institutions and the Macroeconomy
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • N40 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - General, International, or Comparative

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