Being a government minister is often seen in Papua New Guinea as providing a resource and reputational advantage for parliamentarians running for re-election.

Using a difference-in-differences approach, Alyssa Leng, Research Officer at ANU finds that being a minister increases the likelihood that an incumbent member of parliament wins at the next election by 14.4 percentage points in open electorates. This effect dissipates within one election cycle, even if the MP continues to hold ministerial office. There appears to be no ministerial incumbent effect for parliamentarians running in provincial electoral seats that cover multiple districts, likely reflecting the effects of a law governing ministerial office in PNG.

The monthly ANU-UPNG seminar series is part of the partnership between the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy and the UPNG, supported by the PNG-Aus Partnership.

The seminars are hybrid events, held in ANU, at the MBA Suite in the SBPP building at the University of PNG, and online.

The time zone for this event in Papua New Guinea is 12.30pm - 1.30pm PGT.