Download or read book Media as a Mechanism of Institutional Change written by Christopher J. Coyne and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A large literature establishes the connection between institutions and economic performance. Comparatively little work, however, explores the process of institutional change. How do development-enhancing institutions emerge where they do not already exist? This paper investigates this question by examining the role of mass media as a mechanism of institutional change. Our analysis considers three case studies: Mexico, Russia, and Poland. We find that a free media facilitates institutional change in the direction of liberal economic and political institutions. In contrast, where government owns or controls the media, media's ability to facilitate such change is constrained.