Análisis del gasto en comunicación en el ciclo político económico del Ecuador periodo post-COVID.

Abstract

The research examines public spending on communication in Ecuador, showing how poor management can distort the government's message and affect the people, especially in a context of information inequality and lack of technology. The inappropriate use of these resources, especially in electoral campaigns, has exacerbated post-COVID economic problems, increasing public debt and reducing investment in critical areas. The research combines a mixed approach: quantitative data using R Studio to model spending and qualitative data to analyse strategies and public perceptions. It also uses Python and libraries such as Tweepy to analyse social media data, especially Twitter, and Generalized Least Squares (GLS) to deal with problems of heteroscedasticity or autocorrelation in regression models. The results indicate that there was no evidence of a political economy cycle (CPE) in the governments of Guillermo Lasso and Lenin Moreno, partly due to the lack of continuity in their terms of office. In contrast, the period of Rafael Correa showed a CPE with a strategic use of communication spending to benefit his party. It is recommended that strict laws be implemented to regulate the use of public resources, improve transparency and oversight, and sanction partisan manipulation.