IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/pepspp/v17y2011i1n3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Media Freedom and Socio-Political Instability

Author

Listed:
  • Pal Sudeshna

    (Georgia College and State University)

Abstract

Free media may reduce incidents of socio-political instability. Different types of socio-political instability have been shown to have a negative effect on investment and economic growth. This study examines the effect of free media on various indicators of socio-political instability. Using a panel of 98 countries over 1994-2005, this study shows that media free from government control and interference may decrease different forms of socio-political instability because it puts internal and external pressure on self-interested governments to act in the best interests of citizens—rather than their own. The empirical results suggest that a freer media is associated with lower levels of socio-political instability as measured by ethnic tensions, external and internal conflicts, crime and disorder, military participation in government and religious tensions. The estimates are robust to several sensitivity tests.

Suggested Citation

  • Pal Sudeshna, 2011. "Media Freedom and Socio-Political Instability," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 17(1), pages 1-23, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:pepspp:v:17:y:2011:i:1:n:3
    DOI: 10.2202/1554-8597.1196
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2202/1554-8597.1196
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2202/1554-8597.1196?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Djankov, Simeon & McLiesh, Caralee & Nenova, Tatiana & Shleifer, Andrei, 2003. "Who Owns the Media?," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(2), pages 341-381, October.
    2. Brunetti, Aymo & Weder, Beatrice, 2003. "A free press is bad news for corruption," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(7-8), pages 1801-1824, August.
    3. Larcinese, Valentino & Puglisi, Riccardo & Snyder, James M., 2011. "Partisan bias in economic news: Evidence on the agenda-setting behavior of U.S. newspapers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(9), pages 1178-1189.
    4. Ndikumana, Leonce, 2005. "Financial development, financial structure, and domestic investment: International evidence," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 651-673, June.
    5. Easterly, William, 2001. "Can Institutions Resolve Ethnic Conflict?," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(4), pages 687-706, July.
    6. Alesina, Alberto & Perotti, Roberto, 1996. "Income distribution, political instability, and investment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1203-1228, June.
    7. Robert J. Barro, 1991. "Economic Growth in a Cross Section of Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 407-443.
    8. Yanikkaya, Halit, 2003. "Trade openness and economic growth: a cross-country empirical investigation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 57-89, October.
    9. Besley, Timothy & Burgess, Robin & Pratt, Andrea, 2002. "Mass media and political accountability," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 35988, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Stefano DellaVigna & Ethan Kaplan, 2007. "The Fox News Effect: Media Bias and Voting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(3), pages 1187-1234.
    11. anonymous, 2000. "Western economic developments," Western economic developments, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Jun.
    12. Riccardo Puglisi & James M. Snyder, Jr., 2008. "Media Coverage of Political Scandals," NBER Working Papers 14598, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. anonymous, 2000. "Western economic developments," Western economic developments, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Mar.
    14. Tim Groseclose & Jeffrey Milyo, 2005. "A Measure of Media Bias," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(4), pages 1191-1237.
    15. Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, 2001. "A Theory of Political Transitions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 938-963, September.
    16. anonymous, 2000. "Western economic developments," Western economic developments, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Sep.
    17. anonymous, 2000. "Western economic developments," Western economic developments, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
    18. anonymous, 2000. "Western economic developments," Western economic developments, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Feb.
    19. Boone, Peter, 1996. "Politics and the effectiveness of foreign aid," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 289-329, February.
    20. Perotti, Roberto, 1996. "Growth, Income Distribution, and Democracy: What the Data Say," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 149-187, June.
    21. Barro, Robert J. & Lee, Jong-Wha, 1994. "Sources of economic growth," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 1-46, June.
    22. anonymous, 2000. "Reviewing economic development needs," Banking and Community Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, issue 2, pages 6-7.
    23. Matthew Gentzkow & Jesse M. Shapiro, 2010. "What Drives Media Slant? Evidence From U.S. Daily Newspapers," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(1), pages 35-71, January.
    24. Nabamita Dutta & Sanjukta Roy, 2009. "The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Press Freedom," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 239-257, April.
    25. Aggarwal, Reena & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad, 2006. "Do workers'remittances promote financial development ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3957, The World Bank.
    26. Alesina, Alberto & Özler, Sule & Roubini, Nouriel & Swagel, Phillip, 1996. "Political Instability and Economic Growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 189-211, June.
    27. Xavier X. Sala-i-Martin, 1997. "I Just Ran Four Million Regressions," NBER Working Papers 6252, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    28. AfDB AfDB, . "African Development Report 2000," African Development Report, African Development Bank, number 17 edited by Adeleke Oluwole Salami, August.
    29. Singh, Harinder & Kwang W. Jun, 1995. "Some new evidence on determinants of foreign direct investment in developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1531, The World Bank.
    30. Carl-Johan Dalgaard & Henrik Hansen & Finn Tarp, 2004. "On The Empirics of Foreign Aid and Growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(496), pages 191-216, June.
    31. anonymous, 2000. "Western economic developments," Western economic developments, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue May.
    32. Petrova, Maria, 2008. "Inequality and media capture," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1-2), pages 183-212, February.
    33. Peter T. Leeson, 2008. "Media Freedom, Political Knowledge, and Participation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(2), pages 155-169, Spring.
    34. anonymous, 2000. "Western economic developments," Western economic developments, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Aug.
    35. Chowdhury, Shyamal K., 2004. "The effect of democracy and press freedom on corruption: an empirical test," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 93-101, October.
    36. Besley, Timothy & Burgess, Robin, 2001. "Political agency, government responsiveness and the role of the media," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4-6), pages 629-640, May.
    37. David Strömberg, 2004. "Radio's Impact on Public Spending," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 189-221.
    38. Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1997. "I Just Ran Two Million Regressions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 178-183, May.
    39. Amartya Sen, 2000. "A Decade of Human Development," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 17-23.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abed Masrorkhah, Sara & Lehnert, Thorsten, 2017. "Press freedom and jumps in stock prices," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 151-162.
    2. Jingtao Yi & Shuang Meng & Craig D. Macaulay & Mike W. Peng, 2019. "Corruption and foreign direct investment phases: The moderating role of institutions," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(2), pages 167-181, June.
    3. Rodolphe Desbordes & Vincenzo Verardi, 2017. "Foreign Direct Investment and Democracy: A Robust Fixed Effects Approach to a Complex Relationship," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 43-82, February.
    4. Munjal, Surender & Varma, Sumati & Bhatnagar, Ankur, 2022. "A comparative analysis of Indian and Chinese FDI into Africa: The role of governance and alliances," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 1018-1033.
    5. Evguenii Zazdravnykh, 2014. "Market size of the media industry and freedom of press: an empirical study," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 109-114.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fitz, Dylan, 2013. "Development Chutes and Ladders: A Joint Impact Evaluation of Asset and Cash Transfers in Brazil," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150254, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Jacquelyn Chase, 2003. "Regional prestige: Cooperatives and agroindustrial identity in southwest Goiás, Brazil," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 20(1), pages 37-51, March.
    3. Petrova, Maria, 2011. "Newspapers and Parties: How Advertising Revenues Created an Independent Press," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 105(4), pages 790-808, November.
    4. Hoon Park & Clifford Russell & Junsoo Lee, 2007. "National culture and environmental sustainability: A cross-national analysis," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 31(1), pages 104-121, March.
    5. C. Simon Fan, 2004. "Relative wage, child labor, and human capital," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 56(4), pages 687-700, October.
    6. Ziesemer, Thomsas, 2003. "Multiple-steady-state growth models explaining twin-peak empirics?," Research Memorandum 033, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    7. Rafael Di Tella & Ignacio Franceschelli, 2011. "Government Advertising and Media Coverage of Corruption Scandals," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 119-151, October.
    8. Fan, C. Simon & Stark, Oded, 2008. "Rural-to-urban migration, human capital, and agglomeration," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 234-247, October.
    9. Strömberg, David & Prat, Andrea, 2011. "The Political Economy of Mass Media," CEPR Discussion Papers 8246, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Chang, Erick P.C. & Chrisman, James J. & Kellermanns, Franz W., 2011. "The relationship between prior and subsequent new venture creation in the United States: A county level analysis," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 200-211, March.
    11. LI, Hongyi & HUANG, Liang, 2009. "Health, education, and economic growth in China: Empirical findings and implications," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 374-387, September.
    12. Patchnart Rouangsang & Chaiwat Nimanussornkul, 2012. "Relationship between inflation rate and economic growth rate of Southeast Asian countries," The Empirical Econometrics and Quantitative Economics Letters, Faculty of Economics, Chiang Mai University, vol. 1(3), pages 65-76, September.
    13. Fumitaka Furuoka & Qaiser Munir, 2010. "Does export dependency hurt economic development? Empirical evidence from Singapore," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 30(1), pages 204-218.
    14. Chan, Justin S.P. & Hong, Dong & Subrahmanyam, Marti G., 2008. "A tale of two prices: Liquidity and asset prices in multiple markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 947-960, June.
    15. Minten, Bart & Barrett, Christopher B., 2008. "Agricultural Technology, Productivity, and Poverty in Madagascar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 797-822, May.
    16. Carmignani, Fabrizio & Mandeville, Thomas, 2014. "Never been industrialized: A tale of African structural change," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 124-137.
    17. Gibson, John & Fatai, Osaiasi Koliniusi, 2006. "Subsidies, selectivity and the returns to education in urban Papua New Guinea," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 133-146, April.
    18. David Strömberg, 2015. "Media and Politics," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 173-205, August.
    19. Amin, Shahina & DaVanzo, Julie, 2004. "The impact of wives' earnings on earnings inequality among married-couple households in Malaysia," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 49-70, February.
    20. Piolatto, Amedeo & Schuett, Florian, 2015. "Media competition and electoral politics," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 80-93.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:pepspp:v:17:y:2011:i:1:n:3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.