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Policy evaluation, media dissemination and public perception of government performance
Project is finished.
Research team: Ruben Durante (Departement of Economics)
This project investigates how the dissemination of information on public policy evaluation by profit-maximizing media can influence the perception of government performance by individuals of differing ideologies, and, ultimately, electoral outcomes. We propose a theoretical framework in which the impact of policy-related coverage on electoral outcome is endogenously determined by media outlets’ incentive to slant coverage to cater to ideological viewers, and viewers’ capacity to filter news bias.
The model also allows for possible feedback effects of viewers’ perception on policy-making. To test the model’s empirical predictions we plan to investigate: i) the coevolution of policies, media coverage and voters’ attitude with respect to crime and immigration in Italy between 2001 and 2006 using a novel longitudinal dataset; ii) the importance of judgments on policy performance and credibility for voting decisions in the context of the 2012 French presidential campaign.
Associated publications :
- Ruben DURANTE, Fighting Crime with a Little Help from my Friends: Party Affiliation, Inter-‐jurisdictional Cooperation and Crime in Mexico LIEPP Working Paper n°17, octobre 2013
- Market-Based Lobbying: Evidence from Advertising Spending in Italy Papers (with S. DellaVigna, E. La Ferrara and B. Knight) - NBER Working Paper #19766
- No News, Big News: the Political Consequences of Entertainment TV (with P. Pinotti and A. Tesei)
- Politics 2.0: the Multifaceted Effect of Broadband Internet on Political Participation(with F. Campante and F. Sobbrio) - NBER Working Paper #19029
- Political Advertising and Voting Intention: Evidence from Random Variation in AdsViewership (with E. Gutierrez)
- Fighting Crime with a Little Help from my Friends: Political Alignment, Inter-jurisdictional Cooperation and Crime in Mexico (with E. Gutierrez), CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP10769, August 2015