Political Leadership and Economic Complexity in Africa
Journal: African Development Review
Year: 2025

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. T