The Political Legacy of Entertainment TV

Ruben Durante, Paolo Pinotti and Andrea Tesei

American Economic Review, 2019, vol. 109, issue 7, 2497-2530

Abstract: We study the political impact of commercial television in Italy exploiting the staggered introduction of Berlusconi's private TV network, Mediaset, in the early 1980s. We find that individuals with early access to Mediaset all-entertainment content were more likely to vote for Berlusconi's party in 1994, when he first ran for office. The effect persists for five elections and is driven by heavy TV viewers, namely the very young and the elderly. Regarding possible mechanisms, we find that individuals exposed to entertainment TV as children were less cognitively sophisticated and civic-minded as adults, and ultimately more vulnerable to Berlusconi's populist rhetoric.

JEL-codes: D72 L82 M31 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20150958
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (107)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20150958 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20150958.data (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20150958.appx (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20150958.ds (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: The political legacy of entertainment TV (2017)
Working Paper: The Political Legacy of Entertainment TV (2015)
Working Paper: The Political Legacy of Entertainment TV (2015)
Working Paper: The Political Legacy of Entertainment TV (2015)
Working Paper: The Political Legacy of Entertainment TV (2015)
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:aea:aecrev:v:109:y:2019:i:7:p:2497-2530

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo

More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().