Opting out of Autocracy: Foreign Media, Institutional Legitimacy, and State-Dependent Human Capital

Sven A. Hartman () and Andrea Bernini ()
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Sven A. Hartman: Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU), Trier University
Andrea Bernini: University of Houston

No 202606, IAAEU Discussion Papers from Institute of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU)

Abstract: When autocracies tie human capital to political loyalty, schooling functions as a costly signal contingent on regime survival. Exploiting topography-driven variation in East Germans’ reception of West German television, we examine how foreign media, by eroding regime legitimacy, reshapes schooling. Exposure reduced schooling by 0.5 years and post-primary attainment by 10.7 percentage points—voluntary withdrawal driven by collapsing legitimacy, not screening, cognition, time use, preferences, or economic anxiety. After reunification, the employment and income gaps closed, the exposed proved less overeducated, and a 1959 reform raising attainment moved neither earnings nor employment—confirming the forgone schooling was political, not productive.

Keywords: Human capital; mass media; authoritarian institutions; institutional legitimacy; signaling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 I21 J24 N44 O15 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 85 pages
Date: 2026-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-lma
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iaa:dpaper:202606

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