Publication: Radio's Impact on Preferences for Patronage Benefits
Date
2014-06
ISSN
Published
2014-06
Author(s)
Keefer, Philip
Khemani, Stuti
Abstract
Citizens in developing countries support
politicians who provide patronage or clientelist benefits,
such as government jobs and gifts at the time of elections.
Can access to mass media that broadcasts public interest
messages shift citizens' preferences for such benefits?
This paper examines the impact of community radio on
responses to novel survey vignettes that make an explicit
trade-off between political promises of jobs for a few
versus public services for all. The impact of community
radio is identified through a natural experiment in the
media market in northern Benin, which yields exogenous
variation in access across villages. Respondents in villages
with greater radio access are less likely to express support
for patronage jobs that come at the expense of public health
or education. Gift-giving is not necessarily traded off
against public services; correspondingly, radio access does
not reduce preferences for candidates who give gifts. The
pattern of results is consistent with a particular mechanism
for radio's impact: increasing citizens' demand
for broadly delivered health and education and thereby
shaping their preferences for clientelist candidates.
Citation
“Keefer, Philip; Khemani, Stuti. 2014. Radio's Impact on Preferences for Patronage Benefits. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 6932. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18814 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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