Politics 2.0: The Multifaceted Effect of Broadband Internet on Political Participation

Filipe Campante, Ruben Durante and Francesco Sobbrio

No 19029, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We investigate the causal impact of broadband Internet on political participation using data from Italy. We show that this impact varies across different forms of political engagement and over time. Initially, broadband had a negative effect on turnout in national elections, driven by increased abstention of ideologically extreme voters. Meanwhile, however, broadband fostered other forms of online and offline participation. Over time, the negative effect was reverted due to the emergence of new political entrepreneurs who used the Internet to convert the initial "exit" back into "voice". Overall, these nuanced effects underscore the general equilibrium dynamic induced by the Internet.

JEL-codes: D72 L82 L86 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-ict, nep-pol and nep-soc
Note: POL
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Published as Filipe Campante & Ruben Durante & Francesco Sobbrio, 2018. "Politics 2.0: The Multifaceted Effect of Broadband Internet on Political Participation," Journal of the European Economic Association, vol 16(4), pages 1094-1136.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w19029.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Politics 2.0: The Multifaceted Effect of Broadband Internet on Political Participation (2018)
Working Paper: Politics 2.0: The Multifaceted Effect of Broadband Internet on Political Participation (2018)
Working Paper: Politics 2.0: The Multifaceted Effect of Broadband Internet on Political Participation (2018)
Working Paper: Politics 2.0: The Multifaceted Effect of Broadband Internet on Political Participation (2013)
Working Paper: Politics 2.0: the Multifaceted Effect of Broadband Internet on Political Participation (2013)
Working Paper: Politics 2.0: the Multifaceted Effect of Broadband Internet on Political Participation (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19029

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w19029

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().