The Instrumental Voter Goes To the Newsagent

Valentino Larcinese

Journal of Theoretical Politics, 2007, vol. 19, issue 3, 249-276

Abstract: This article studies the impact of instrumental voting on information demand and mass media behaviour during electoral campaigns. If voters act instrumentally then information demand should increase with the closeness of an election. If mass media are profit-maximizing firms then information supply should be larger in electoral constituencies where the contest is expected to be closer, delivery costs are lower and customers are on average more profitable for advertisers. The impact of the size of the electorate is theoretically undetermined. These conclusions are derived within a formal model of information demand and supply, and then tested, with good results, on data from the 1997 general election in Britain.

Keywords: British elections; Information acquisition; mass media; media bias; rational ignorance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:jothpo:v:19:y:2007:i:3:p:249-276

DOI: 10.1177/0951629807077569

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