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Mass media and public services : the effects of radio access on public education in Benin

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  • Keefer, Philip
  • Khemani, Stuti

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Keefer, Philip & Khemani, Stuti, 2011. "Mass media and public services : the effects of radio access on public education in Benin," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5559, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5559
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Lieberman, Evan S. & Posner, Daniel N. & Tsai, Lily L., 2014. "Does Information Lead to More Active Citizenship? Evidence from an Education Intervention in Rural Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 69-83.
    2. Eliana La Ferrara, 2016. "Mass Media And Social Change: Can We Use Television To Fight Poverty?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 791-827, August.
    3. Helene Grandvoinnet & Ghazia Aslam & Shomikho Raha, 2015. "Opening the Black Box," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 21686, December.
    4. Ada Gonzalez-Torres, 2022. "Local Media and the Shaping of Social Norms: Evidence from the Ebola outbreak," Papers 2210.15946, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2023.
    5. World Bank Group, 2014. "Strategic Framework for Mainstreaming Citizen Engagement in World Bank Group Operations," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 21113, December.
    6. Shilin Zheng & Mengdan Li, 2022. "Does aggressive tweeting by the government help to control the COVID‐19 outbreak? Evidence from China," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 691-713, October.
    7. Khemani, Stuti, 2013. "Buying votes vs. supplying public services : political incentives to under-invest in pro-poor policies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6339, The World Bank.

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    Keywords

    Education For All; Population Policies; Social Accountability; E-Business; Disability;
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