Ministers Engage in Favoritism Too

Abstract

We study favoritism by cabinet members in 36 African countries and hand-collect birthplace information for all cabinet members (2001-2015). We focus on health outcomes and provide causal evidence of favoritism by health ministers and, to a lower degree, key ministers. Neonates' and infants' mortality is lower when the current health minister originates from their region. Increased healthcare access can partly explain this effect. Moreover, we find some evidence that the health ministers' regions benefit from higher health aid flows. We conclude that ministers' favoritism manifests itself in diverse forms.