A Window to the World: The long-term effect of Television on Hate Crime

Marek Endrich

No 33, ILE Working Paper Series from University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics

Abstract: This paper analyzes the long-term impact of television on hate crimes in Germany. In the German Democratic Republic (GDR) foreign television served as a window to the world and exposed viewers to foreign influences. But certain parts of the GDR were excluded from receiving Western television due to geographical features. I argue that this resulted in long-lasting differences in the attitude towards foreigners. Using the spatial variation in signal strength as a natural experiment, the paper tests the effect of Western broadcasts on the rate of hate crimes. Municipalities with no access to foreign broadcasts exhibit a higher degree of xenophobic violence in the period of the migration crisis in Germany between 2014 to 2017. It shows that media can lead to preference changes that persist for a long time after the exposure.

Keywords: hate crimes; refugees; natural experiment; media (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul, nep-eur, nep-law, nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:ilewps:33

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