Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/162657 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
MAGKS Joint Discussion Paper Series in Economics No. 11-2017
Publisher: 
Philipps-University Marburg, School of Business and Economics, Marburg
Abstract: 
This paper explores the causal influence of access to Western television programming on voting behavior. We exploit a natural experiment involving access to West German TV within the German Democratic Republic in which only geography and topography determined the allocation of individuals to treatment and control groups. Focusing on both the shares of extremist parties and voter turnout, we find that in the post-reunification decade in which TV content was harmonized, regions that already had access to Western TV broadcasts before reunification experience lower vote shares of extremist parties and higher voter turnout.
Subjects: 
Voting
Television
Media
Natural experiment
Germany
JEL: 
J22
K42
P37
P39
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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