Media
Media development action with informed and engaged societies
Media
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at lainiciativadecomunicacion.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Evidence: The Political Economy of Government Responsiveness: Theory and Evidence from India

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The Political Economy of Government Responsiveness: Theory and Evidence from India

Name(s) of author(s)?:

Timothy Besley and Robin Burgess

Who published this paper, article, book (chapter) or other publication?:

The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 117, No. 4 (Nov., 2002), pp. 1415-1451.

What are the best extracts that highlight the evidence for the impact of a communication for development, social change, behaviour change, public engagement, or informed citizen strategy on a development issue and priority?:

The empirical results can be accounted for by a simple theoretical model where politicians have an eye on their election chances. The role of the media enhances their incentives to do so by more closely tying their actions to voting outcomes. Columns (2) and (5) look at whether newspaper circulation explains responsiveness. They reveal a positive correlation between newspaper circulation levels and our two measures of large enough to influence chronic poverty the system has an important role to play in protecting citizens from short-term food crises (see Dreze [1991] and Radhakrishna and Subbarao [19971). The effects are large and significant - a 1 percent increase in newspaper circulation is associated with a 2.4 percent increase in public food distribution and a 5.5 percent increase in calamity relief expenditures. Moreover, the result is robust to controlling for the political variables introduced in columns (3) and (6). States with higher levels of media development are thus more active in protecting vulnerable citizens. This is consistent with the theoretical idea that this is due to improvements in political accountability.

To which development issue does this evidence and impact data relate?:

Democracy and Governance

To which strategic approach(es) does the evidence and impact data relate?:

News and Information, Mass Media

What research methodology (ies) was/were used to produce this evidence and impact data?:

Researchers ran panel data regressions for states i and years t.

What is the URL to access this paper, article, book (chapter) or other publication?:

http://public.econ.duke.edu/~psarcidi/lunchf08/besburgess.pdf

Participating organisations in the Global Alliance for Social and Behaviour Change - Building Informed and Engaged Societies were asked to identify, in their opinion, the 5 most compelling research and evaluation studies that demonstrate the direct impact of this field of work on a major development issue. This was one of the nominees. For the full compiled list, please click here. For the compilation of the key impact data across all research evidence identified, please click here.