Mass Media and Public Policy: Global Evidence from Agricultural Policies

Abstract

Mass media plays a crucial role in information distribution and thus in the political market and public policy making. Theory predicts that information provided by mass media reflects the media's incentives to provide news to different types of groups in society, and affects these groups' influence in policy-making. We use data on agricultural policy from 60 countries, spanning a wide range of development stages and media markets, to test these predictions. We find that, in line with theoretical predictions, public support to agriculture is strongly affected by the structure of the mass media. In particular, a greater role of the private mass media in society is associated with policies which benefit the majority more: it reduces taxation of agriculture in poor countries and reduces subsidization of agriculture in rich countries, ceteris paribus. The evidence is also consistent with the hypothesis that increased competition in commercial media reduces transfers to special interest groups and contributes to more efficient public policies.JEL classification: D72, D83, Q18

Changing coalitions in value chains and the political economy of agricultural and food policy

“…One example is how the growth and technological change of commercial mass media has influenced agricultural and food policies (see e.g. McCluskey and Swinnen, 2011;Olper and Swinnen, 2013).…”

How have PISA results informed education policy discussions and affected policy in middle-income countries?

“…For evidence from research to inform public dialogue about education policy it is necessary for the results to be widely disseminated, often through mass media such as newspapers, television, radio and online resources. Theoretical and empirical work indicate that "access to mass media empowers people politically" (Olper and Swinnen, 2013;Stromberg, 2001).…”

Average scores in mathematics in 18 low- and middle-income countries, PISA 2012

“…For evidence from research to inform public dialogue about education policy it is necessary for the results to be widely disseminated, often through mass media such as newspapers, television, radio and online resources. Theoretical and empirical work indicate that "access to mass media empowers people politically" (Olper and Swinnen, 2013;Stromberg, 2001). In OECD countries, a great deal of dissemination of research related to education policy has taken place over the past 15 years, often peaking with the release of PISA or TIMSS.…”