The background of political leaders and capital flight : evidence from Africa,

In studies of government and economics, an important issue is the relationship between the background of political leaders and economic performance. The aim of this paper is to empirically study the relationship between the background of political leaders and capital flight in Africa. Using a sample of 38 African countries from 2008 to 2018, we find that political horizon, the age and the profession of the political leaders stimulate capital flight, using Driscoll-Kraay methods, 2SLS and MLLI. Oil rent and corruption are the transmission channels that amplify the nature of the tenure-capital flight relationship. The results also highlight the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between political tenure and capital flight. On the other hand, high educated leaders, i.e. those with a master's degree and/or doctorate (HEL), contain the malaise; especially in oil-producing countries. It follows that in order to curb capital flight, it would be advisable to set up electoral laws that would perpetuate the accession to power of high educated leaders.