THESIS
2017
ix, 44 pages : illustrations ; 30 cm
Abstract
How do people interpret corruption information? I use the corruption news released
by the anti-corruption campaign in China since 2013 to causally examine its impact on
people’s self-reported attitude change related to inequality. Using the generalized difference-in-differences approach, I found that corruption news does not affect social mobility view,
but deteriorates fairness view. The results are robust after controlling for regional cultural
differences and local corruption severity. The possibility of reversal causality is also excluded
by controlling for prior corruption awareness and by testing for the pre-trends. To examine
the channel of knowledge about corruption severity, I use Baidu Searching Index for fanfu as
a proxy for corruption awareness. I found that corruptio...[
Read more ]
How do people interpret corruption information? I use the corruption news released
by the anti-corruption campaign in China since 2013 to causally examine its impact on
people’s self-reported attitude change related to inequality. Using the generalized difference-in-differences approach, I found that corruption news does not affect social mobility view,
but deteriorates fairness view. The results are robust after controlling for regional cultural
differences and local corruption severity. The possibility of reversal causality is also excluded
by controlling for prior corruption awareness and by testing for the pre-trends. To examine
the channel of knowledge about corruption severity, I use Baidu Searching Index for fanfu as
a proxy for corruption awareness. I found that corruption exposure increased corruption
awareness and that more increase in awareness is correlated with more negative attitude
change. This shows that the campaign has updated people’s knowledge about corruption
severity and suggests that the anti-corruption campaign may have an unintended destabilizing
effect. I refute the alternative explanation of other information’s effect by using Xi Jinping’s
news.
Post a Comment