TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Mercier, Marion
        TI  - The Return of the Prodigy Son: Do Return Migrants Make Better Leaders?
        PY  - 2013/Nov/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 7780
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp7780
        AB  - This paper investigates the impact of political leaders' migration experience on the quality of their leadership. We build up an original database 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. We put forward a positive effect of the leader having studied abroad on the level of democracy in his country during his tenure. 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.
        KW  - developing countries
KW  - democracy
KW  - migration
KW  - political leaders
        ER  -