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Bureaucratic Corruption and Mass Media

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  • Suphachol Suphachalasai

    (Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge)

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between a bureaucracy and mass media industry, and its implications to corruption. We develop a bureaucratic model of corruption with mass media. A representative profit maximizing media firm seeks for corruption news to be printed and sold. Channels through which competition in media industry and press freedom affect equilibrium corruption in a bureaucracy are modeled. Different degrees of media freedom and competition affect production and employment decisions of media firms, and this in turn affects the effectiveness of media in monitoring corruption. Competition and freedom in media sector also have an influence on bureaucratic structure and consequently on equilibrium corruption. We find that the degree of competition in media market plays a significant role in controlling corruption. Freedom of media also reduces corruption. Empirical results support these findings. Media competition appears to be a more important tool to combat corruption than press freedom. The corruption problem in Italy could be reduced to the level experienced by France if the competitiveness of its media industry was to be improved to the same level as that of United Kingdom.

Suggested Citation

  • Suphachol Suphachalasai, 2005. "Bureaucratic Corruption and Mass Media," Environmental Economy and Policy Research Working Papers 05.2005, University of Cambridge, Department of Land Economics, revised 2005.
  • Handle: RePEc:lnd:wpaper:200505
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    Cited by:

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      • Karthik Reddy & Moritz Schularick & Vasiliki Skreta, 2012. "Immunity," Working Papers 12-17, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
      • Karthik Reddy & Moritz Schularick & Vasiliki Skreta, 2013. "Immunity," Working Papers 13-04, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
      • Karthik Reddy & Moritz Schularick & Vasiliki Skreta, 2013. "Immunity," CESifo Working Paper Series 4445, CESifo.
    2. Nicolas Jacquemet, 2005. "La corruption comme une imbrication de contrats : Une revue de la littérature microéconomique," Working Papers 2005-29, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    3. Kolstad, Ivar & Wiig, Arne, 2009. "Is Transparency the Key to Reducing Corruption in Resource-Rich Countries?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 521-532, March.
    4. Jayoti Das & Cassandra DiRienzo, 2009. "The Nonlinear Impact Of Globalization On Corruption," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 3(2), pages 33-46.
    5. Dana Nedea & Ioan Petrișor, 2019. "A methodology for strategic diagnosis of business corruption behaviours using network analysis," Journal of Administrative and Business Studies, Professor Dr. Usman Raja, vol. 5(6), pages 323-329.
    6. Sylvain B. Ngassam & Simplice Asongu & Gildas T. Ngueleweu, 2023. "Social media use for offline political action (OPA) and corruption in Africa: impacts and transmission channels," Working Papers 23/059, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    7. Aisha Ismail & Kashif Rashid, 2014. "Time series analysis of the nexus among corruption, political instability and judicial inefficiency in Pakistan," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 2757-2771, September.
    8. Erzsébet Németh & Gábor Körmendi & Beatrix Kiss, 2011. "Corruption and Publicity," Public Finance Quarterly, State Audit Office of Hungary, vol. 56(1), pages 58-66.
    9. Joseph-François Cabral, 2013. "Corruption, croissance et pauvreté : le cas du Sénégal," Cahiers de recherche 13-03, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    10. Gabriele Gratton, 2013. "The Sound of Silence: Anti-Defamation Law and Political Corruption," Discussion Papers 2012-21A, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    11. Gabriele Gratton, 2012. "The Sound of Silence: Anti-Defamation Law and Political Corruption," Discussion Papers 2012-21, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    12. Gratton, Gabriele, 2015. "The sound of silence: Political accountability and libel law," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 266-279.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corruption; Bureaucracy; Mass Media;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government

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