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American Economic Review Vol. 104 No. 7 2014

E-lections: Voting Behavior and the Internet

Oliver Falck1; Robert Gold2; Stephan Heblich3

1 Ifo Institute, Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, University of Munich, Poschingerstr. 5, D-81679 Munich, Germany, and CESifo (e-mail: ) · 2 Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Kiellinie 66, D-24105 Kiel, Germany (e-mail: ) · 3 Department of Economics, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN United Kingdom, and CESifo, IZA, and SERC (e-mail: )

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effects on voting behavior of information disseminated over the Internet. We address endogeneity in Internet availability by exploiting regional and technological peculiarities of the preexisting voice telephony network that hindered the roll-out of fixed-line infrastructure for high-speed Internet. We find negative effects of Internet availability on voter turnout, which we relate to a crowding-out of TV consumption and increased entertainment consumption. We find no evidence that the Internet systematically benefits specific parties, suggesting ideological self-segregation in online information consumption. Robustness tests, including placebo estimations from the pre-Internet period, support a causal interpretation of our results.

DOI
10.1257/aer.104.7.2238
Volume
104
Issue
7
Pages
2238-2265
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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