Mass Media and Public Services : The Effects of Radio Access on Public Education in Benin
Does radio access improve public service provision? And if so, does it do so by increasing government accountability to citizens, or by persuading households to take advantage of publicly-provided services? Prior research has argued that citizens w...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20120103164908 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3697 |
| Summary: | Does radio access improve public service
provision? And if so, does it do so by increasing government
accountability to citizens, or by persuading households to
take advantage of publicly-provided services? Prior research
has argued that citizens with greater access to mass media
receive greater benefits from targeted government welfare
programs, but has not addressed these questions for public
services such as in education and health. Using unique data
from Benin, this paper finds that literacy rates among
school children are higher in villages exposed to signals
from a larger number of community radio stations. The effect
is identified based on a "natural experiment" in
the northern communes of Benin where within-commune
variation in village access to radio stations is exogenous
to observed and unobserved village characteristics. In
contrast to prior research, the authors find that this media
effect does not operate through government accountability:
government inputs into village schools and household
knowledge of government education policies are no different
in villages with greater access to community radio. Instead,
households with greater access are more likely to make
financial investments in the education of their children. |
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