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How do different local policies in a federal system affect local land values, production, and sorting? We study the question exploiting a large historical policy change: U.S. Alcohol Prohibition in the early twentieth century. Comparing same- state early and late adopters of county dry laws in a difference-in-differences design, we find that early Prohibition adoption increased population and farm real estate values. Moreover, we find strong effects on farm productivity consistent with increased investment due to a land price channel. In equilibrium, the policy change disproportionately attracted immigrants and African-Americans.
Do U.S. municipal police departments respond to news coverage of local crime? We address this question exploiting an exogenous shock to local crime reporting induced by acquisitions of local TV stations by a large broadcast group, Sinclair. Using a unique dataset of 8.5 million news stories and a triple differences design, we document that Sinclair ownership decreases news coverage of local crime. This matters for policing: municipalities that experience the change in news coverage have lower violent crime clearance rates relative to municipalities that do not. The result is consistent with a decrease of crime salience in the public opinion.
DP19503 Media Consolidation
(2024)
Recent decades have seen major changes to the local media environment in the United States, with the absorption of many formerly independent local TV stations into conglomerates. Using a comprehensive dataset of acquisitions, we examine the effects of ownership by the three largest television conglomerates on local news advertising, content, and viewership. Conglomerate owners consistently increase advertising duration during local newscasts. We find large effects on stations’ coverage of local events and local politics, but the direction of these effects varies across owners. Despite these changes, viewer responses are minimal. We conclude by investigating downstream consequences on viewers’ political knowledge.
Do gender attitudes influence interactions with female judges in US circuit courts? In this paper, we propose a judge-specific measure of gender attitudes based on use of gender-stereotyped language in the judge's authored opinions. Exploiting quasi-random assignment of judges to cases and conditioning on judges' characteristics, we validate the measure showing that higher-slant judges vote more conservatively in gender-related cases. Higher-slant judges interact differently with female colleagues: they are more likely to reverse lower court decisions if the lower court judge is a woman than a man, are less likely to assign opinions to female judges, and cite fewer female-authored opinions.
Social media has changed the structure of mass communication. In this paper we explore its role in influencing political donations. Using a daily dataset of campaign contributions and Twitter activity for US Members of Congress 2019-2020, we find that attention on Twitter (as measured by likes) is positively correlated with the amount of daily small donations received. However, this is not true for everybody: the impact on campaign donations is highly skewed, indicating very concentrated returns to attention that are in line with a ‘winner-takes-all’ market. Our results are confirmed in a geography-based causal design linking member’s donations across states.
Do U.S. municipal police departments respond to news coverage of local crime? We address this question exploiting an exogenous shock to local crime reporting induced by acquisitions of local TV stations by a large broadcast group, Sinclair. Using a unique dataset of 8.5 million news stories and a triple differences design, we document that Sinclair ownership decreases news coverage of local crime. This matters for policing: municipalities that experience the change in news coverage have lower violent crime clearance rates relative to municipalities that do not. The result is consistent with a decrease of crime salience in the public opinion.
To investigate barriers to universal health insurance in developing countries, we designed a randomized experiment involving about 6,000 households in Indonesia who are subject to a government health insurance program with a weakly enforced mandate. Time-limited subsidies increased enrollment and attracted lower-cost enrollees, in part by reducing the strategic timing of enrollment to correspond with health needs. Registration assistance also increased enrollment, but increased attempted enrollment much more, as over one-half of households who attempted to enroll did not successfully do so. These findings underscore how weak administrative capacity can create important challenges in developing countries for achieving widespread coverage.
Every day, editors of media outlets decide what is news and what is not. In this paper, we unpack the process of news production by looking at the share of newscasts devoted to weather events---deviations in temperatures from the historical mean---by local TV stations in the United States. We show that not all weather events receive the same attention. Large deviations receive substantially more coverage than typical temperatures, and the greater the deviation, the higher the coverage. We also document the presence of both publication and presentation bias. Even after controlling for station fixed effects, TV stations in Democratic-leaning media markets report more on extreme temperature deviations and are more likely to evoke climate change than outlets in markets with a large Republican audience. We propose a stylised model of news production and consumption with citizens valuing uncommon events and suffering from a form of confirmation bias to explain the empirical patterns we find
This dissertation in applied microeconomics studies how political institutions and external shocks shape individual policy preferences and public spending. It comprises three self-contained chapters. Chapter 1 investigates the role of legislative institutions in the allocation of public funds. Chapters 2 and 3 analyze the impact of disruptive events on individual preferences for health policies.
Chapter 1 studies how legislative institutions shape distributive policy outcomes. Specifically, it examines the allocation of federal grants by the German Bundestag’s budget committee. Using a difference-in-differences design, the analysis shows that gaining a seat on the budget committee doubles the average grant amount allocated to a legislator’s electoral district. This committee benefit in the allocation of grants is driven by internal committee hierarchy, rather than affiliation with the government or incentives from mandate types.
Chapter 2 examines how individuals’ previous experience of disruptive events shapes demand for current crisis remedies. Using a model of experience-based learning and micro-level survey data from 19 countries, this chapter finds that individuals who have been exposed to disasters or armed conflict are more willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19. A case study using survey data from Russia reveals that this effect is conditional on trust in government.
Chapter 3 analyzes how a single disruptive event can alter individuals’ preferences for abortion policy. It studies the 1976 Seveso chemical disaster which sharply increased perceived risk of industrial toxic exposure, particularly for pregnant women. Using pre-accident data on industrial plant locations and municipality-level voting, this study finds that proximity to hazardous industry reduced support for a restrictive abortion policy.
This paper examines how network ties between local social leaders influenced the diffusion of mass protests in an autocracy. We focus on the Protestant Church and the Peaceful Revolution in East Germany. To quantify the role of leader networks in protest diffusion, we compile biographical records of over 1,600 Protestant pastors, including their employment and education histories. Our findings reveal that network connections led to an increase in protest diffusion by up to 4.9 percentage points in a given week. Moreover, we highlight the importance of network centrality, pastors as information bridges, and the interaction with preexisting grievances and repression.