Political ignorance and the internet

Irene Bertschek and David F. Müller

No 21-106, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: We examine the link between Internet usage and political ignorance. We construct a novel Index as a direct measure of individuals' indifference with respect to political issues which determines the degree of individual political ignorance. Our econometric analysis is based on a rich data set consisting of six surveys of individuals covering the time period 2001 to 2014 and being representative for the German electorate. The empirical results show that in the earlier years of Internet diffusion there is a negative link between using the Internet and political ignorance. This link changes sign in later years of Internet diffusion. We discuss potential explanations of this observed change in the link such as information overload and the increase in heterogeneity of Internet users.

Keywords: Internet; information cost; indifference index; political ignorance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D80 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ict, nep-pay and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Journal Article: Political Ignorance and the Internet (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:21106

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