Mass media and public education: The effects of access to community radio in Benin

- What are the effects of media access on broadly-delivered public services?
- Community radio stations in Africa broadcast significant public interest programming.
- We identify the impact of community radio access on education in Benin.
- More radio access increases child literacy and household investment in education.
- It does not increase government investments in education.

Prior research on mass media and government accountability has not examined the effects of citizen media access on broad public services, such as education. At the same time, research has abstracted from the potentially influential role of mass media on parental investments in children's education. We address both issues using a “natural experiment” in radio access in Benin and find that school children's literacy rates are higher in villages exposed to a larger number of community radio stations. There is no evidence that this effect operates through greater government responsiveness. Instead, households with greater media access make larger private investments in their children's education.