Mind what your voters read: Media exposure and international economic policy making

Giovanni Facchini, Tommaso Frattini and Cora Signorotto

No 11282, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We investigate how media exposure affects elected representatives’ response to preferences on immigration and trade policy. Using a novel dataset spanning the period 1986-2004, in which we match individual opinion surveys with congressmen roll call votes, we find that greater exposure to media coverage tends to increase a politician’s accountability when it comes to migration policy making, while we find no effect for trade policy. Our results thus suggest that more information on the behavior of elected officials affects decisions only when the policy issue is perceived to be salient by the electorate.

Keywords: Political economy; Public opinion; Roll call votes; Media exposure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 H89 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-int, nep-mig and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Mind What Your Voters Read: Media Exposure and International Economic Policy Making (2013)
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