Corporate Governance and Public Corruption
Corporate governance in the private sector and corruption are important for economic development and private sector development. This paper investigates how corporate governance in private-sector media companies can affect public corruption. The an...
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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_20100304154357 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3719 |
| Summary: | Corporate governance in the private
sector and corruption are important for economic development
and private sector development. This paper investigates how
corporate governance in private-sector media companies can
affect public corruption. The analytical framework, based on
models of corporate governance, identifies two channels
through which media ownership concentration affects
corruption: an owner effect, which discourages corruption
and a competition-for-control effect that enhances it. When
the ownership structure of a newspaper has a majority
shareholder, the first effect dominates and corruption
decreases as ownership becomes more concentrated in the
hands of majority shareholders. Without majority
shareholders, the competition-for-control effect dominates
and corruption increases with the concentration of ownership
of the media company. Thus, the paper shows that cases of
intermediate media-ownership concentration are the worst at
promoting public accountability, while extreme situations,
where the ownership is completely concentrated or widely
held, can result in similar and lower levels of corruption. |
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