Corporate Control in The Market for News, Tunneling Problems and Corruption ∗

This paper analyzes the relationship between corruption in the pub-lic sector and concentration of media firms ’ ownership structures. In doing so, it brings into the analysis corporate governance theory. The paper provides novel theoretical and empirical results that identify the channels through which ownership concentration affects corruption. It also shows that the relation between concentration and corruption is non-monotonic i.e. increasing for low values of concentration and decreasing for high ones. In this respect, cases of intermediate con-centration are the worst to promote accountability in the media and in the public sector