Shushing the press shortens lives: cross-national evidence of the impact of press freedom on life expectancy

Abstract

Aims:

Press freedom around the globe has deteriorated over the past decade, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper explores the effect of press freedom, as a cornerstone of democracy, on life expectancy.

Methods:

Exploring cross-country data, we use the ordinary least square method to estimate the association between press freedom and life expectancy. In addition, we adopt three novel instrumental variables to explore the causal relationship.

Results:

Our estimations indicate that a freer press leads to higher life expectancy, and the effect exists independently of the level of democracy. In addition, the effect of continuous exposure to press freedom is stronger than sporadic free press status. The results are robust to measurement errors, influential outliers, and country-specific heterogeneity.

Conclusions:

This study reveals the fundamental role of press freedom in promoting public health that was previously underexplored. Therefore, enhancing freedom of expression can be an effective tool to address three of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, that is, reduce under-five mortality, improve maternal health, and combat HIV/AIDS.

JEL:I1 H7 D02