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The Effect of Newspaper Entry and Exit on ElectoralPolitics
Matthew Gentzkow (Chicago) Jesse Shapiro (Chicago)Michael Sinkinson (Harvard)
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Motivation
Regulation of media motivated by possible effects on politics
Emerging evidence
Stromberg (2004, 2007), Snyder and Stromberg (2008), Gentzkow and Shapiro (2004), Gentzkow
(2006), DellaVigna and Kaplan (2007), Gerber, Karlan and Bergan (2008)
Key limitations
Small number of events / outletsDifficulty of measuring content / partisanshipLimited variation in market structure (competition, diversity, etc.)
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This Paper
New data on entry/exit of US daily newspapers from 1869-2004
Use sharp timing of events to identify political effects
Key features of the data
Number of events & long time horizonPolitical affiliationsVariation in maket structure
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Preview of Findings
Participation
Reading a newspaper causes 13% of non-voters to vote1st paper matters; 2+ not so clearLess important for presidential (but not congressional) turnout over timeNo separate effect of ideological diversity
Persuasion
Partisan papers do not significantly affect vote shares
Political competition
No evidence that newspapers moderate/exacerbate incumbency advantage
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Data
Annual directories of U.S. newspapers
Rowell’s/Ayer’s Directory 1869-1928Editor & Publisher International Yearbook 1932-2004
Define news market = county
Merge to county-level voting and demographic data
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Background
Political content
Party affiliations
Size of entry and exit events
Drivers of entry and exit
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Empirical Model
Number of newspapers nct
Outcome yct (e.g. turnout):
∆yct = β∆nct + controls + γst + error
Treats exits/entries as equal and opposite
Identification
Argue likely bias works against usExploit sharp timingLook at pre-trendsPlacebo exercise
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Model in Continuous Time
TimeEntry
β
Vote
r Tu
rnou
t
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Model in Discrete Time
Time
Vote
r Tu
rnou
t
β
t*+2t* t*+1t*-1t*-2
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Model in First Differences
Time
∆Vot
er T
urno
ut
β
t*+2t* t*+1t*-1t*-2
0
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Political Participation
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Confounds
Based on existing evidence:
Population growth tends to reduce turnout (marginal populations)Income growth has small and ambiguous effects
We confirm that both factors reduce turnout in our data
Expect our estimates to be biased downward
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Effects on Turnout: Unadjusted−
.005
0.0
05.0
1C
hang
e in
Tur
nout
per
Elig
ible
Vot
er
−40
−36
−32
−28
−24
−20
−16
−12 −8
−4 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40
Years Relative to Change in Number of Newspapers
actual predicted
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Effects on Turnout: Adjusted−
.005
0.0
05.0
1C
hang
e in
Tur
nout
per
Elig
ible
Vot
er
−40
−36
−32
−28
−24
−20
−16
−12 −8
−4 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40
Years Relative to Change in Number of Newspapers
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Estimates: Main
Readership Presidential Congressional
Turnout Turnout (Off Years)
(1) (2) (3) (4)
Effect of a 0.1314 0.0026 0.0034 0.0032
Newspaper (0.0044) (0.0009) (0.0009) (0.0012)
Demos? yes no yes yes
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Estimates: Competition / Diversity
Effects largest for the first paper in the market (1 percentage point)
Cannot reject no effect of second and later papers
No evidence that ideological diversity matters for turnout
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Estimates: Changes over Time
Effect on presidential turnout falls to zero after radio & TV
Effect on congressional turnout remains marginally significant and similar inmagnitude
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Interpretation of Magnitudes
First newspaper increases turnout by
1 percentage point overall4 percentage points among readers13 percentage points among readers who would not otherwise have voted
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Party Vote Shares
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Confounds
Most obvious issue: Republican papers go to Republican markets
This pattern is unmistakable in the cross-section
Will tend to bias us towards finding persuasive effects
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Effects on Vote Shares−
.005
0.0
05.0
1C
hang
e in
Rep
ublic
an V
ote
Sha
re
−40
−36
−32
−28
−24
−20
−16
−12 −8
−4 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40
Years Relative to Change in (#Rep−#Dem)
actual predicted
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Effects on Vote Shares−
.005
0.0
05.0
1C
hang
e in
Rep
ublic
an V
ote
Sha
re
−40
−36
−32
−28
−24
−20
−16
−12 −8
−4 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40
Years Relative to Change in (#Rep−#Dem)
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Power
Consider market with one newspaper
Switch it from D to R
Point estimate on Presidential vote share effect is 0.02 percentage points
Upper end of confidence interval is about 0.4 percentage point change
Effect on readers of 2 percentage points”Persuasion rate” of 3 percent in equally split county(Compare to Fox News persuasion rate of 12 percent)
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Incumbency
No evidence that newspapers systematically help or hurt incumbents
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What Will Happen if Newspapers Close Today?
Monopoly paper closings may cause small to moderate declines in localparticipation
Second paper closings probably have little/no effect
No evidence that newspaper closings will affect party vote shares orincumbency advantage