A free press is bad news for corruption

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Brunetti, A; Weder, B
• 署名单位: Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/S0047-2727(01)00186-4
• 发表日期: 2003
• 页码: 1801-1824
• 关键词: corruption; press freedom

摘要

This paper tests the proposition that a free press may be a powerful control on corruption. We find evidence of a significant relationship between more press freedom and less corruption in a large cross-section of countries. This result is robust to specification and sample and the relationship is not sensitive to the choice of a particular measure of corruption or of press freedom. Furthermore we present evidence which suggests that the direction of causation runs from higher press freedom to lower corruption. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.