American Economic Review Vol. 101 No. 7 2011

Media and Political Persuasion: Evidence from Russia

Ruben Enikolopov¹; Maria Petrova²; Ekaterina Zhuravskaya³

¹ New Economic School, Office 922, Nakhimovsky pr. 47, Moscow, 117418, Russia. · ² New Economic School, Office 905, Nakhimovsky pr. 47, Moscow 117418, Russia. · ³ Paris School of Economics and New Economic School, Office 104A, 48 Bd. Jourdan, 75014 Paris, France.

Abstract

This paper compares electoral outcomes of 1999 parliamentary elections in Russia among geographical areas with differential access to the only national TV channel independent from the government. It was available to three-quarters of Russia's population and its signal availability was idiosyncratic, conditional on observables. Independent TV decreased aggregate vote for the government party by 8.9 percentage points, increased the combined vote for major opposition parties by 6.3 percentage points, and decreased turnout by 3.8 percentage points. The probability of voting for opposition parties increased for individuals who watched independent TV even controlling for voting intentions measured one month before elections.

DOI

10.1257/aer.101.7.3253

Volume

101

Issue

7

Pages

3253-3285

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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