Mass Media and Public Policy : Global Evidence from Agricultural Policies

Mass media play a crucial role in information distribution and in the political market and public policy making. Theory predicts that information provided by the mass media reflects the media's incentives to provide news to different groups in society and affects these groups' influence in...

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Main Authors:	Olper, Alessandro, Swinnen, Johan
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank 2015
Subjects:	agriculture consumer interest economic performance income purchasing power political economy subsidization taxation trade disputes voter preference WTO
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21615

id	okr-10986-21615
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-216152021-04-23T14:04:03Z Mass Media and Public Policy : Global Evidence from Agricultural Policies Olper, Alessandro Swinnen, Johan agriculture consumer interest economic performance income purchasing power political economy subsidization taxation trade disputes voter preference WTO Mass media play a crucial role in information distribution and in the political market and public policy making. Theory predicts that information provided by the mass media reflects the media's incentives to provide news to different groups in society and affects these groups' influence in policy making. We use data on agricultural policy from 69 countries spanning a wide range of development stages and media markets to test these predictions. Our empirical results are consistent with theoretical hypotheses that public support for agriculture is affected by the mass media. In particular; an increase in media (television) diffusion is associated with policies that benefit the majority to a greater extent and is correlated with a reduction in agriculture taxation in poor countries and a reduction in the subsidization of agriculture in rich countries; ceteris paribus. The empirical results are consistent with the hypothesis that increased competition in commercial media reduces transfers to special interest groups and contributes to more efficient public policies. 2015-03-18T18:28:10Z 2015-03-18T18:28:10Z 2013-09 Journal Article World Bank Economic Review 1564-698X http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21615 en_US CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Journal Article
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	agriculture consumer interest economic performance income purchasing power political economy subsidization taxation trade disputes voter preference WTO
spellingShingle	agriculture consumer interest economic performance income purchasing power political economy subsidization taxation trade disputes voter preference WTO Olper, Alessandro Swinnen, Johan Mass Media and Public Policy : Global Evidence from Agricultural Policies
description	Mass media play a crucial role in information distribution and in the political market and public policy making. Theory predicts that information provided by the mass media reflects the media's incentives to provide news to different groups in society and affects these groups' influence in policy making. We use data on agricultural policy from 69 countries spanning a wide range of development stages and media markets to test these predictions. Our empirical results are consistent with theoretical hypotheses that public support for agriculture is affected by the mass media. In particular; an increase in media (television) diffusion is associated with policies that benefit the majority to a greater extent and is correlated with a reduction in agriculture taxation in poor countries and a reduction in the subsidization of agriculture in rich countries; ceteris paribus. The empirical results are consistent with the hypothesis that increased competition in commercial media reduces transfers to special interest groups and contributes to more efficient public policies.
format	Journal Article
author	Olper, Alessandro Swinnen, Johan
author_facet	Olper, Alessandro Swinnen, Johan
author_sort	Olper, Alessandro
title	Mass Media and Public Policy : Global Evidence from Agricultural Policies
title_short	Mass Media and Public Policy : Global Evidence from Agricultural Policies
title_full	Mass Media and Public Policy : Global Evidence from Agricultural Policies
title_fullStr	Mass Media and Public Policy : Global Evidence from Agricultural Policies
title_full_unstemmed	Mass Media and Public Policy : Global Evidence from Agricultural Policies
title_sort	mass media and public policy : global evidence from agricultural policies
publisher	Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank
publishDate	2015
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21615
_version_	1764448776011907072

Mass Media and Public Policy : Global Evidence from Agricultural Policies

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