Data for: The role of political patronage on risk-taking behavior of banks in Middle East and North Africa region
Description
Our sample contains 32 commercial banks operating in 6 MENA countries: Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen and Iran. MENA region is made of many countries and large number of banks. Although the sample does not include all countries of the region, it is still representative for developing economies and countries characterized by authoritarian regimes and sharing same features (high level of corruption, weak legal system and business restrictions...). In such countries, political patronage may play a vital role. Annual financial data and key ratios are obtained from the Bureau van Dijk ‘Bankscope’ database. For the period of 2003-2014, an unbalanced panel data of 359 bank-year observations is constructed. For each individual we collect information on their biographies, current and former position held and political background such as positions in parliament, ministries and government, relationships with royal families, ministers or heads of state from various websites such as Bloomberg (https://www.bloomberg.com/), Zonebourse (https://www.zonebourse.com/) and Wikipedia (https://fr.wikipedia.org).