Information Networks and Collective Action: Evidence from the Women's Temperance Crusade

Camilo García-Jimeno, Angel Iglesias and Pinar Yildirim

American Economic Review, 2022, vol. 112, issue 1, 41-80

Abstract: How do social interactions shape collective action, and how are they mediated by networked information technologies? We answer these questions studying the Temperance Crusade, a wave of anti-liquor protest activity spreading across 29 states between 1873 and 1874. Relying on exogenous variation in network links generated by railroad accidents, we provide causal evidence of social interactions driving the diffusion of the movement, mediated by rail and telegraph information about neighboring activity. Local newspaper coverage of the crusade was a key channel mediating these effects. Using an event-study methodology, we find strong complementarities between rail and telegraph networks in driving the movement's spread.

JEL-codes: D83 J16 L92 L96 N31 N41 N71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1257/aer.20180124

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