Political Leadership and Economic Complexity in Africa

Abstract

Following the literature on leadership impact, this article examines the effect of presidential attributes on the level of economic complexity in African countries. For this purpose, a sample of 28 countries observed over the period 1998 to 2020 was selected. Based on estimates using the ordinary least squares (OLS) and the feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) estimators, it is established that the President's education and occupation are important factors in economic complexity. These results are robust to the employment of various methodologies. The study identifies two potential transmission channels through which the president's attributes influence economic complexity. These mechanisms are institutional quality and human capital.