2023/10/25 by Daniel Krcmaric, Stephen C. Nelson, Andrew Roberts · 1 voice · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Corruption and Economic Development #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies #Media Influence and Politics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s1537592723002761
openalex publication_date 2023/10/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We introduce an original dataset of formal political participation for over 2,000 individuals included in the Forbes Billionaires List. We find that billionaire politicians are a surprisingly common phenomenon: Over 11% of the world’s billionaires have held or sought political office. Even compared to other elite groups known for producing politicians from their ranks, this is a high rate of political participation. Moreover, billionaires focus their political ambitions on influential positions, have a strong track record of winning elections, and lean to the right ideologically. We also document substantial cross-national variation: a country’s number of billionaire politicians is not simply a product of its total number of billionaires, but is instead related to regime type. Specifically, billionaires formally enter the political sphere at a much higher rate in autocracies than in democracies. We conclude by discussing the normative implications of our findings and outlining a new research agenda on billionaire politicians.