Press Freedom, Human Capital and Corruption

DELTA Working Paper No. 2002-11

36 Pages Posted: 17 Nov 2004

See all articles by Rudiger Ahrend

Rudiger Ahrend

Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities

Date Written: February 2002

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the relationship between corruption, human capital, and the monitoring capacities of civil society, as proxied for example by press freedom and an independent judicial system. In a theoretical model we find the impact of education on corruption to depend on the capacities of civil society to oversee government officials. If those capacities are well developed, education decreases corruption, whereas it may lead to higher corruption if civil monitoring is low. We find empirical evidence to support this result for secondary and higher education. Furthermore we investigate the direct relation between corruption and press freedom. We find no evidence that corruption negatively affects press freedom. We find, however, strong empirical evidence that a lack of press freedom leads to higher levels of corruption. This implies that strengthening press freedom should be among the priorities in the fight against corruption.

Keywords: Corruption, Political Economy, Press Freedom, Human Capital

JEL Classification: D72, D78, I20

Suggested Citation

Ahrend, Rudiger, Press Freedom, Human Capital and Corruption (February 2002). DELTA Working Paper No. 2002-11, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=620102 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.620102

Rudiger Ahrend (Contact Author)

Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities ( email )

2 rue Andre Pascal
Paris, 75016
France
75016 (Fax)