Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/58344 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 3827
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
This paper analyses the effect of information disseminated by the Internet on voting behavior. We address endogeneity in Internet availability by exploiting regional and technological peculiarities of the preexisting voice telephony network that hinder the roll-out of fixed-line broadband infrastructure for high-speed Internet. We find small negative effects of Internet availability on voter turnout, and no evidence that the Internet systematically benefits single parties. Robustness tests including placebo estimations from the pre-Internet era confirm our results. We relate differences in the Internet effect between national and local elections to a crowding out of national but not local newspapers.
Subjects: 
elections
political economy
mass media
internet
JEL: 
D72
C50
L86
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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