HKC01 - What We Do in the Shadows: How Urban Density Facilitates Information Diffusion and Civic Engagement

Qing Zhang and Evan Plous Kresch
Additional contact information
Qing Zhang: Google LLC
Evan Plous Kresch: Department of Economics, Oberlin College, https://www.oberlin.edu/arts-and-sciences/departments/economics

No 2501, Oberlin College Kasper Economics and Business Working Papers Series from Oberlin College, Department of Economics

Abstract: Does urban density facilitate the diffusion of information and civic engagement? This paper exploits plausibly exogenous variation generated by a unique national policy in China that requires all residential buildings to receive sufficient hours of sunshine. The policy creates higher degrees of restriction on density at higher latitudes, where longer shadows require buildings to be further apart. Using differential topic dynamics on a national petition platform to measure information diffusion, this paper shows that people respond to shifts in government attention with varying speeds across latitudes. Increases in local government reply rate to a topic raises the volume of subsequent posts on the same topic, exhibiting an S-shaped time trajectory consistent with local information diffusion about shifting government priorities. These responses are systematically faster in southern cities, where density is higher. Survey evidence further indicates that otherwise similar individuals are more likely to gossip about public issues in a southern city.

Keywords: Building Density; Sunlight; Information Diffusion; Civic Engagement; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 O18 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 65 pages
Date: 2025-12
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