JSPES, Vol. 46, No. 1-2 (Spring-Summer 2021)
pp. 116-138

Elections and Budget Policy in Developing Countries: Sub-Saharan Africa

Amadou Bobbo
University of Yaoundé II Soa, Cameroon
Adalbert Abraham Ghislain Melingue-Bate
University of Yaoundé II Soa, Cameroon

This paper re-examines the effect of elections [on budget policy in developing countries. It first examines the effect of elections on fiscal policy according to the rational opportunistic hypothesis. The study then analyses the strength of these effects. The Generalized Method of Moment in system (S-GMM) is applied on a sample of 41 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 1990 to 2015. Our results suggest that the approach and holding of elections in SSA lead to rising on government spending, declining on tax revenue and worsening of fiscal deficits. We also find that democracy and fighting corruption significantly reduce the strength of political business cycles (PBCs), while political fragmentation has reverse effects. We recommend improving the quality of institutions that control public action in order to tame PBCs in SSA.