More elections, more burden? On the relationship between elections and public debt in Africa

Nimonka Bayale, Abdou-Fataou Tchagnao and Hopestone Chavula

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: The political determinants of public indebtedness in developing countries is still generating a lot of interest among academics and policy makers. This paper investigates whether elections influence the public debt dynamics relying on data from 51 African countries spanning 1990 to 2015. The analyses are conducted using the fixed effects and the system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The results reveal that although all types of elections increase public debt, only the impact of the presidential elections are significant. The findings are robust irrespective of the estimation technique. The paper recommends African countries to rationalize public resources, particularly in the election years.

Keywords: Public debt; Elections; Africa; Fixed effects; System GMM. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 D72 F34 H60 N17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-07-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in African Review of Economics and Finance XX.X(2020): pp. 22-47

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:101744

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