The effect of newspaper entry and exit on electoral politics
By: Matthew Gentzkow, Jesse M. Shapiro, Michael Sunkinson.
Contributors: Shapiro, Jesse.; Sunkinson, Michael.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper  15544; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no.  15544.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "We use new data on entries and exits of US daily newspapers from 1869 to 2004 to estimate effects on political participation, party vote shares, and electoral competitiveness.  Our identification strategy exploits the precise timing of these events and allows for the possibility of confounding trends.  We find that newspapers have a robust positive effect on political participation, with one additional newspaper increasing both presidential and congressional turnout by approximately 0.3 percentage points.  Newspaper competition is not a key driver of turnout: our effect is driven mainly by the first newspaper in a market, and the effect of a second or third paper is significantly smaller.  The effect on presidential turnout diminishes after the introduction of radio and television, while the estimated effect on congressional turnout remains similar up to recent years.  We find no evidence that partisan newspapers affect party vote shares, with confidence intervals that rule out even moderate-sized effects.  We find no clear evidence that newspapers systematically help or hurt incumbents"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 12/1/2009.

Includes bibliographical references.

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Mode of access: World Wide Web.