Press Freedom, Human Capital and Corruption

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Abstract
In this paper we investigate the relationship between corruption, hu- man capital, and the monitoring capacities of civic society, as proxied for example by press freedom and an independent judicial system. In a theoretical model we …nd the impact of education on corruption to depend on the capacities of civic society to monitor government. If those capacities are well developed, education decreases corruption, whereas it may lead to higher corruption if civic monitoring is low. We …nd empirical evidence to support this result. Furthermore we investigate the direct relation between corruption and press freedom. We …nd little evidence that corruption negatively aects press freedom. However, we …nd 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 …ght