The Impact of Media Freedom on Corruption: A Cross-Country Panel Analysis
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Abstract
The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of press freedom on corruption and also analyze how internet freedom affects corruption. The empirical analysis involved an unbalanced panel of 118 countries from 1998 to 2017, thus covering a period of 20 years for press freedom and corruption and an unbalanced panel of 46 countries from 2011 to 2020 covering a period of 10 years for the analysis of internet access and corruption. The results show that press freedom and its legal and political influences have statistically significant negative effect on corruption. A free press reduces corruption. However, in the empirical analysis involving internet freedom on corruption, the study finds no significant effect on corruption. Furthermore, it finds that countries with high exports of natural resources tend to increase corruption, the factors of economic growth and political rights can reduce corruption. The results are consistent in both parts of press and internet media.
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