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Does candidates’ media exposure affect vote shares? Evidence from Pope breaking news

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  • Caprini, Giulia

Abstract

I study the impact of politicians’ media exposure in campaign on their vote share, exploiting an exogenous change in coverage during the Italian 2013 electoral race. Right before the election, the Pope Benedict XVI suddenly resigned and broadcast coverage of politics markedly dropped. Only five days of lower visibility of the right-wing leader and TV tycoon Berlusconi (-26 percentage points) caused a 2 percentage points dip in his vote share, and lead to his defeat by 0.4 percentage points. Following the TV coverage disruption, a part of Berlusconi’s electorate resorted to Internet for political news, and later favored a new party with Internet-centred propaganda.

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  • Caprini, Giulia, 2023. "Does candidates’ media exposure affect vote shares? Evidence from Pope breaking news," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:220:y:2023:i:c:s0047272723000294
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.104847
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    TV coverage; Media; Politics; Voting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

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