Afonso, AntónioJalles, João Tovar2023-01-172023-01-172019Afonso, António and João Tovar Jalles .(2019). ''Sovereign ratings and finance ministers' characteristics'', Economics Bulletin, Volume 39, Issue 4, pp. 2999-30101545-2921http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/26923We assess the effect of a newly-compiled set of finance ministers´ characteristics on long-term sovereign rating notations. Using a sample of 26 EU countries between 1980-2012, we find that the existence of more focused delegation-oriented fiscal framework, the Minister of Finance being a woman, and the Minister of Finance having a degree in the areas of finance or “hard sciences” contributes to better sovereign ratings, and the opposite in the case of a Law background.engSovereign RatingsEU CountriesOrdered ProbitFiscal FrameworkSovereign DebtFiscal Frameworkjournal article