Abstract
In this paper, we study the relationship between communication and “transparency of information” and governance by exploring the link between social media and natural resource governance. Using a cross-country analysis, we document a robust and statistically significant positive relationship between Facebook penetration (a proxy for social media) and natural resource governance. It follows that countries with higher social media levels enjoy natural resource governance of better quality than countries with low levels of social media. The positive effect of social media is robust to controlling for other determinants of institutional quality, additional controls, and outliers, inter alia.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
All details reported here are from de www.revenuewatch.org/rgi
Institutional and legal setting: The extent to which laws, regulations, and institutional arrangements facilitate transparency, accountability, and fair competition.
Reporting practices: The actual disclosure of information by public bodies.
Safeguards and quality controls: The presence and quality of control and supervision mechanisms that promote integrity and protect against conflicts of interest.
Enabling environment: State of governance as a whole, based on more than 30 external measures of accountability, government effectiveness, rule of law, corruption, and democracy.
References
Acemoglu D, Robinson JA, Johnson S (2001) The colonial origins of comparative development: an empirical investigation. Am Econ Rev 91(5):1369–1401
Acemoglu D, Hassan TA, Tahoun A (2018) The power of the street: evidence from Egypt’s Arab Spring. Rev Financ Stud 31(1):1–42
Adamic, L. A., & Glance, N. (2005). The political blogosphere and the 2004 U.S. election: divided they blog. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Link Discovery, 36–43
Alesina AF, Michalopoulos S, Papaioannou E (2016) Ethnic inequality. J Polit Econ 124(2):428–488
Alonso JA, Garcimartín C (2013) The determinants of institutional quality. More on the debate. J Int Dev 25(2):206–226
Andersen TB, Bentzen J, Dalgaard CJ, Selaya P (2011) Does the Internet reduce corruption? Evidence from U.S. states and across countries. World Bank Econ Rev 25(3):387–417
Asongu S, Kodila-Tedika O (2017) Institutions and poverty: a critical comment based on evolving currents and debates. Soc Indic Res. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1709-y
Asongu S, Kodila-Tedika O (2018) Determinants of property rights protection in sub-Saharan Africa. J Knowl Econ 9(4):1291–1308
Asongu SA, Nwachukwu JC (2016) The mobile phone in the diffusion of knowledge for institutional quality in sub Saharan Africa. World Dev 86(October):133–147
Asongu SA, Odhiambo NM (2019) Governance and social media in African countries: an empirical investigation. Telecommun Policy 43(5):411–425
Asongu SA, Nwachukwu JC, Orim S-M, I. (2018) Mobile phones, institutional quality and entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa. Technol Forecast Soc Chang 131:183–203
Asongu S, Nwachukwu J, Orim S-M, Pyke C (2019a) Crime and social media. Information Technology & People, Forthcoming
Asongu S, Orim ST, Nting RT (2019b). Terrorism and social media: global evidence, Forthcoming. J Global Inf Technol Manag
Barberá P, Zeitzoff T (2017) The new public address system: why do world leaders adopt social media? Int Stud Q. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqx047
Barberá P, Zeitzoff T (2018) The new public address system: why do world leaders adopt social media. Int Stud Q 62(1):1–130
Besley T, Burgess R (2002) The political economy of government responsiveness: theory and evidence from India. Quarterly Journal of Economics CXVII:1415–1451
Besley T, Prat A (2006) Handcuffs for the grabbing hand? Media capture and government accountability. Am Econ Rev 96(3):720–736
Bollen J, Mao H, Zeng X (2011) Twitter mood predicts the stock market. J Comput Sci 2:1–8
Bomsel O (2018) Mineral rents and social orders: when Radetzki meets Douglass North. Miner Econ 31(1):7–11
Chaudhuri A, Flamm KS, Horrigan J (2005) An analysis of the determinants of Internet access. Telecommun Policy 29(9–10):731–755
Chong A, Zanforlin L (2000) Law tradition and institutional quality: some empirical evidence. J Int Dev 12(8):1057–1068
Comin D, Easterly W, Gong E (2010) Was the wealth of nations determined in 1000 BC? Am Econ J: Macroecon 65–97
Conover MD, Ferrara E, Menczer F, Flammini A (2013) The digital evolution of occupy Wall Street. PLoS One 8(5):e64679
Desmarchelier B, Fang ES (2016) Social media and the diffusion of information: a computational experiment on the emergence of food scares. Kyklos 69(4):559–583
DiGrazia J, McKelvey K, Bollen J, Rojas F (2013) More tweets, more votes: social media as a quantitative indicator of political behavior. PLoS One 8(11):e79449
Easterly W, Levine R (1997) Africa’s growth tragedy: policies and ethnic divisions. Q J Econ 112(4):1203–1250
Eisensee T, Stomberg D (2007) New droughts, new floods and U.S. disaster relief. Q J Econ 122:693–728
Enikolopov R, Makarin A, Petrova M (2017) Social media and protest participation: evidence from Russia. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2696236
Enikolopov R, Petrova M, Sonin K (2018) Social media and corruption. Am Econ J Appl Econ 10(1):150–174
Ericsson M, Löf O (2019) Mining’s contribution to national economies between 1996 and 2016. Miner Econ 32(2):223–250
Fenske J, Zurimendi I (2017) Oil and ethnic inequality in Nigeria. J Econ Growth 22:397–420
Ferraz C, Finan F (2008) Exposing corrupt politicians: the effect of Brazil’s publicly released audits on electoral outcomes. Q J Econ 123:703–745
Frankel JA (2012) The natural resource curse: a survey of diagnoses and some prescriptions. HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP12–014, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Glaeser E (2008) Researcher incentives and empirical methods. In Rubin (ed) Foundations of positive and normative economics
Glaeser EL, La Porta R, Lopez-de-Silane F, Shleifer A (2004) Do institutions cause growth? NBER Working Papers 10568
Gylfason T (2018) Political economy, Mr. Churchill, and natural resources. Miner Econ 31(1):23–34
Halberstam Y, Knight B (2016) Homophily, group size, and the diffusion of political information in social networks: evidence from Twitter. J Public Econ 143:73–88
Huber PJ (1973) Robust regression: asymptotics, conjectures and Monte Carlo. Ann Stat 1:799–821
Hong S, Nadler D (2011) Does the early bird move the polls?: the use of the social media tool ‘twitter’ by us politicians and its impact on public opinion. In Proceedings of the 12th Annual International Digital Government Research Conference: Digital Government Innovation in Challenging Times, 182–186
Islam R, Montenegro CE (2002) What determines the quality of institutions? Background paper for the World Development Report: building institutions for markets
Janetzko D (2014) Predictive modeling in turbulent times – what Twitter reveals about the EUR/USD exchange rate. Netnomics 15(2):69–106
Jha CK, Kodila-Tedika O (2020) Does social media promote democracy? Some empirical evidence. J Policy Model 42(2):271–290
Jha CK, Sarangi S (2017) Does social media reduce corruption? Inf Econ Policy 39:60–71
Kalonda-Kanyama I (2012) Determinants of institutional quality: reexamining the effect of trade, globalization and GDP in a cross-section of countries. UJ Working Paper
Kelejian HH, Murrell P, Shepotylo O (2013) Spatial spillovers in the development of institutions. J Dev Econ 101(C):297–315
Kiiski S, Pohjola M (2002) Cross-country diffusion of the Internet. Inf Econ Policy 14(2):297–310
Kodila-Tedika O (2014) Governance and intelligence: empirical analysis from African data. J African Dev 16(1):83–97
Kodila-Tedika O (2018) Governance in Africa: convergence or divergence? Econ Bull 38(1):71–88
Kodila-Tedika O, Kalonda-Kanyama I (2012) Quality of institutions: does intelligence matter? Economic Research Southern Africa. Working papers 308
Kodila-Tedika O, Tcheta-Bampa A (2014) Cold War and institutional quality: some empirical evidence, MPRA Paper 53965. University Library of Munich, Germany
La Porta R, Lopez-di-Silanes F, Shleifer A, Vishny R (1999) The quality of government. J Law Econ Org 15:222–279
Leamer EE (1983) Let’s take the con out of econometrics. Am Econ Rev 73(1):31–43
Leamer EE (1985) Sensitivity analyses would help. Am Econ Rev 75(3):308–313
Leamer EE (2008) Extreme bounds analysis. In: S. Durlauf and L.Blume (Eds) The new Palgrave dictionary of economics. Second Edition. Palgrave Macmillan
Mehlum H, Moene K, Torvik R (2006) Institutions and the resource curse. Econ J 116(508):1–20
Meisenberg G, Lynn R (2011) Intelligence: a measure of human capital in nations. J Social Polit Econ Stud 36(4):421–454
Metaxas PT, Eni M (2012) Social media and the elections. Science 338(6106):472–473
Midi H, Talib BA (2008) The performance of robust estimator on linear regression model having both continuous and categorical variables with heteroscedastic errors. Malaysian J Math Sci 2:25–48
Mitchell BR (2003a) International historical statistics: Africa, Asia & Oceania, 1750–2001, 4th edn. Palgrave Macmillan, NewYork
Mitchell BR (2003b) International historical statistics: Europe, 1750–2000, 5th edn. PalgraveMacmillan, NewYork
Mitchell BR (2003c) International historical statistics: the Americas 1750–2000, 5th edn. Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Narankhuu B (2018) Are natural resources a curse or a blessing for Mongolia? Miner Econ 31(1):171–177
Nülle GM, Davis GA (2018) Neither Dutch nor disease?—natural resource booms in theory and empirics. Miner Econ 31(1):35–59
Oluwatobi S, Efobi UR, Olurinola OI, Alege P (2015) Innovation in Africa: why institutions matter. South African J Econ 83(3):390–410
Papke L, Wooldridge J (1996) Econometric methods for fractional response variables with an application to 401(k) plan participation rates. J Appl Econ 11(6):619–632
Petrova M, Sen A, Yildirim P (2016). Social media and political donations: new technology and incumbency advantage in the United States. Available at SSRN: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2836323
Potrafke N (2012) Intelligence and corruption. Econ Lett 114(1):109–112
Prat A, Strömberg D (2013) The political economy of mass media. Advances in economics and econometrics. Cambridge University Press
Qin B, Strömberg D, Wu Y (2016) The political economy of social media in China. Unpublished
Qin B, Strömberg D, Wu Y (2017) Why does China allow freer social media? Protests versus surveillance and propaganda. J Econ Perspect 31(1):117–140
Raftery A (1995) Bayesian model selection in social research. Sociol Methodol 25:111–165
Reinikka R, Svensson J (2004) The power of information: evidence from a newspaper campaign to reduce capture. Policy Research Working Paper No. 3239, World Bank
Rindermann H, Kodila-Tedika O, Christainsen G (2015) Cognitive capital, good governance, and the wealth of nations. Intelligence 51:98–108
Sachs JD, Warner AM (2001) The curse of natural resources. Eur Econ Rev 45(4):827–838
Sala-i-Martin X (1997) I just ran two million regressions. Am Econ Rev 87(2):178–183
Sala-i-Martin X, Doppelhofer G, Miller R (2004) Determinants of long-term growth: a Bayesian averaging of classical estimates Approach. Am Econ Rev 94(4):813–835
Simmons J, Nelson L, Simonsohn U (2011) False-positive psychology: undisclosed flexibility in data collection and analysis allows presenting anything as significant. Psychol Sci 22(11):1359–1366
Snyder JM Jr, Strömberg D (2010) Press coverage and political accountability. J Polit Econ 118(2):355–408
Sprenger TO, Sandner PG, Tumasjan A, Welpe IM (2014) News or noise? Using Twitter to identify and understand company-specific news flow. J Bus Financ Acc 41(7–8):791–830
Stevens P (2003) Resource impact: curse or blessing? A literature survey. J Energy Lit XI.1:3–42
Strömberg D (1999) The political economy of public spending. Ph.D. Dissertation, Princeton University
Strömberg D (2004) Radio's impact on public spending. Q J Econ 119(1):189–221
Strömberg D (2016) Media coverage and political accountability: theory and evidence. In Simon P. Anderson, Joel Waldfogel, and David Strömberg (eds) 595–622. Handbook of media economics. Amsterdam: North-Holland
Tcheta-Bampa A, Kodila-Tedika O (2018a) Conditions institutionnelles de la malédiction des ressources naturelles en Afrique sur les performances économiques, MPRA Paper 86511. University Library of Munich, Germany
Tcheta-Bampa A, Kodila-Tedika O (2018b) Dynamisation de la malédiction des ressources naturelles en Afrique sur les performances économiques: institution et guerre froide, MPRA Paper 86510. University Library of Munich, Germany
Tebaldi E, Mohan R (2010) Institutions and poverty. Oxf Dev Stud 46(6):1047–1066
Treme J, Van Der Ploeg Z (2014) The Twitter effect: social media usage as a contributor to movie success. Econ Bull 34(2):793–809
Van der Ploeg F (2011) Natural resources: curse or blessing? J Econ Lit 49(2):366–420
Van der Ploeg F, Poelhekke S (2016) The impact of natural resources survey of recent quantitative evidence. J Dev Stud 53(2):205–216
Williams LV, Reade J (2016) Prediction markets, social media and information efficiency. Kyklos 69(3):518–556
Wooldridge J (2010) Econometric analysis of cross section and panel data, 2nd edn. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Wooldridge J (2012) Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach, 5nd edn. CENGAGE Learning Custom Publishing
Young C (2009) Model uncertainty in sociological research: an application to religion and economic growth. Am Soc Rev 74:380–397
Young C, Kroeger K (2017) Model Uncertainty and robustness: a computational framework for multi-model analysis. Social Methods Res 46(1):3–40
Young C, Kroeger K, Muñoz J (2013) An estimator for model robustness
Zeitzoff T (2011) Using social media to measure conflict dynamics: an application to the 2008–2009 Gaza conflict. J Confl Resolut 55(6):938–969
Zeitzoff T (2017) How social media is changing conflict. J Confl Resolut 61(9):1970–1991
Zeitzoff T (2018) Does social media influence conflict? Evidence from the 2012 Gaza conflict. J Confl Resolut 62(1):29–63
Zeitzoff T, Kelly J, Lotan G (2015) Using social media to measure foreign policy dynamics: an empirical analysis of the Iranian–Israeli confrontation (2012–13). J Peace Res 52(3):368–383
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kodila-Tedika, O. Natural resource governance: does social media matter?. Miner Econ 34, 127–140 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13563-020-00234-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13563-020-00234-3