Political Advertising, Expectations, and Household Consumption

Cody Couture, Abhiprerna Smit and Rene Zamarripa

Working Papers from Economics Department, William & Mary

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of political advertising on household consumption behavior in the United States. Using a regression discontinuity design that exploits variation in advertisement exposure across media market borders, we show that exposure to political advertisements significantly affects household consumption. Weekly county-level nondurable spending increases by 0.24% for every additional one standard deviation of positive economic-themed advertisements. The effect is heterogeneous by county-level demographics, with a stronger consumption response from counties with a higher proportion of older and low-income residents. We also provide evidence on the underlying mechanisms, showing that these effects operate through changes in household sentiment and the economic information conveyed in the advertisements.

Keywords: Political advertisements; consumption; media; partisanship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 E21 E71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2026-04-13
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cwm:wpaper:177

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DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.6555648

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